Bill Gates Disses The iPadBill Gates Disses The iPad

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Count Microsoft chairman Bill Gates among those who are unimpressed with the iPad.

Gates said Apple's new tablet-style device is too bare bones to offer a full computing experience for most users.

"You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen, and a real keyboard--in other words a netbook--will be the mainstream on that," Gates said in an interview with business blog Bnet.

Gates said the iPad doesn't offer anything that Windows-based tablets can't do.

"So it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with the iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough,'" said Gates. "It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done that.'"

Though Gates isn't the only iPad critic--numerous observers have knocked the device for its lack of a camera, Flash support, and phone functionality--his comments might have to be take with a grain of salt.

Microsoft is, after all, aggressively pushing Windows 7-based tablets from partners such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Indeed, CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated a prototype HP tablet powered by Windows 7 last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"It's almost as portable as a phone, and as powerful as a PC running Windows 7," Ballmer said at the time. "This emerging category of PCs really should take advantage of the touch and mobility capabilities of Windows 7," he said.

While Microsoft has not announced release dates or prices for tablet PCs, company executives have left little doubt that Windows-powered tablets are coming.

"We started with desktops and laptops, but we added notebooks, now we're adding tablets," said Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division president Robbie Bach, who also spoke at CES. "At the high end you add all-in-ones, then you add game machines," said Bach.

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