Microsoft had the idea of creating an e-reader in 1998, but the project was rejected by Bill Gates.
The information came to light in a report by Vanity Fair with some ex-employees of Microsoft, and was confirmed by the executive, which at the time was the president of the company, during the interview with a North American channel program PBS , occurred on Monday.
According to Gates, the idea of a touch tablet had already occurred "long before" the rise of the iPad, made by Apple. But, the project offered at the time was just "a little good" in the opinion of the co-founder of Microsoft.
According to a MS programmer, Gates would not have approved the device interface for not "seem" enough to Windows.
"The tablets we had made before were so thin, and not as attractive as they would later," Gates said during the interview, which also revealed as Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder knew of manufacturing the same . "He did some things better than me," he stated.
The Surface, the tablet announced by Microsoft on June 18, will be a chance for the company to be inserted permanently in this market. According to the executive, with this device the company will have "something that can change the rules again."
