Apple iSlate will 'rule the world' - Alan Kay

Jonny Evans

January 27, 2010

iPhone - iPod

“When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing. So at the end of the presentation, Steve came up to me and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? And I said: Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world.”

Alan Kay predicts some success for Apple’s tablet - admittedly when interviewed by GigaOM last year...pretty much the kind of precog you’d expect from the man who invented the notebook concept, joined Xerox PARC and had a hand in inventing the graphical user interface that Steve Jobs fell in love with during a visit to the facility and, erm, used on the Macintosh.

“I bet a thousand dollars that they had a five-by-eight-inch version for the last couple years in house.”

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Comments (9)

Big Boy (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 6:56am

I have a five-by-eight inch version. My wife loves it!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 7:01am

Alan Kay is a great visionary. In a way its a shame that he doesn't get much of the spotlight. This guy described so much of our modern technology 35 years ago.

Executive management at Xerox totally dropped the ball. A bunch of dolts that had failed to pursue any of the ideas of their extremely well spoken, internationally-renowned technical expert.

Kay's biggest industry believer was Jobs - a newbie kid from a startup company with a boatload of cash.

TheBrew (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 8:31am

I'm sure that Alan, like Woz, is just fine where he is. His values are focused other places than the spotlight. I'm certain that people in the business are very aware of him and give him the respect/honor he deserves.

Love these guys. Making the world a better place. ..Peace ;)

Jarrett (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 7:05am

Thats funny stuff big boy. Besides that, you have to love Allen Kay, we know Steve does.

rogerdodger07 (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 7:43am

Apple tablet is call Slice.

rogerdodger07 (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 7:43am

Apple tablet is called Slice.

rogerdodger07 (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 7:43am

Apple tablet name is Slice

PROcrastinator (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 8:35am

It it all the traffic that has slowed 9to5 to a crawl??!

This does not bode well for Seth's surprise if it is a bandwidth hog (i.e audio or video stream). That would be a shame.

I cant decide whether to go spoiler free and wait for the keynote quicktime stream.

5to9Mac Noob (not verified) | January 27, 2010 - 1:47pm

"Executive management at Xerox totally dropped the ball. A bunch of dolts that had failed to pursue any of the ideas of their extremely well spoken, internationally-renowned technical expert."

Exactly. Xerox was too concerned with their "core competency" of copy machines to worry about monetizing advanced technology or to even protect their intellectual property. Xerox could have been as big as Apple plus Microsoft today if they hadn't given away the future for free.

I visited Xerox PARC years ago on a business trip, and it was kind of like a college campus in architecture and in attitude. The exact opposite of buttoned-down old-school IBM of old.