Bill Gates's iPad Irony: Misjudging a Winner, Seeing the Future of Tablets

Sixteen years ago, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates famously dismissed Apple's newly launched iPad, saying it offered nothing that made him wish Microsoft had created it first. "It's a nice device for reading, but there's nothing on the iPad that made me say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had made this,'" Gates stated in an interview, as reported by The Guardian in February 2010.

At the time, Gates believed a combination of voice, digital pen, and physical keyboard, more akin to a netbook, would become the dominant form of computing. While he acknowledged the appeal of touch technology and digital reading, his vision diverged from the iPad's trajectory.

Market data now suggests Gates's prediction about the iPad's long-term appeal was inaccurate. Recent figures from research firm Omdia show Apple still leads the global tablet market in the second quarter of 2026, shipping 13.5 million iPads and capturing approximately 38% of the market. Samsung followed in second place with nearly six million units shipped.

This dominance persists even as the overall tablet market faces a downturn. Omdia forecasts a 10% year-over-year decline in global tablet shipments for Q2 2026, reaching about 36 million units. A separate report from International Data Corporation (IDC) noted a sharp contraction, with global tablet shipments at 33.6 million units in the same period, down 12.3% annually. Despite these market pressures, Apple's iPad continues to hold its ground.

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It's a nice device for reading, but there's nothing on the iPad that made me say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had made this.'