<i>&quot;The company was so in love with P.C.s (the hub for all things and for all time to come) that it came late to the Internet and much, much too late to mobile phones.&quot;</i><p>In the early 2000s, Microsoft did try pushing tablet computers, &quot;pocket PCs&quot; based on Windows CE (rivals to Palm PDAs) and even had Windows Phone OS in some smartphones.<p>That did not gain traction, because the user experience was not captivating, and they had missed the insight that fingers would be the way to go. (I&#x27;m not sure if earlier the capacitive touchscreen technology was already available in alternative to the resistive screens that required a stylus.)<p>I&#x27;d say that Apple&#x27;s post-2007 success would not be possible without learning from Microsoft&#x27;s expensive failures. But Microsoft did try.