Happy Birthday iPad

Two years ago today, Apple changed the world of computing by announcing the iPad. It was the first and only tablet on the scene just two short years ago. Now there are many.

While the iPad didn’t actually come out until April 2010, Information Week is counting the announcement as its birthday, so we will too. But as InformationWeek explains, the device was a long time coming: “The iPad’s gestation period was a long one. Computer pioneer Alan Kay had conceived of a tablet computer, the Dynabook, back in 1968, around the time that the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on Arthur C. Clark’s novel of the same name, depicted a tablet news reader. Over the years, variations on the tablet theme appeared. Microsoft hardware partners shipped tablet PCs in 2002 and Windows-based tablets have lingered on, without much success.”

The tablet has come a long way. This week the company announced that it sold 15.43 million iPads in fiscal Q1 2012.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.