Apple's first tablet computer was the Newton MessagePad 100,[15][16] introduced in 1993, which led to the creation of the ARM6 processor core with Acorn Computers. Apple also developed a prototype PowerBook Duo-based tablet, the PenLite, but decided not to sell it in order to avoid hurting MessagePad sales.[17] Apple released several more Newton-based PDAs; the final one, the MessagePad 2100, was discontinued in 1998.
Apple re-entered the mobile-computing markets in 2007 with the iPhone. Smaller than the iPad, but featuring a camera and mobile phone, it pioneered the multitouch finger-sensitive touchscreen interface of Apple's iOS mobile operating system. By late 2009, the iPad's release had been rumored for several years. Such speculation mostly talked about "Apple's tablet"; specific names included iTablet and iSlate.[18] The actual name is reportedly a homage to the Star Trek PADD, a fictional device very similar in appearance to the iPad,[19] as well as being a variation of the word "iPod". The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.[20][21]
Jobs later said that Apple began developing the iPad before the iPhone,[22][23] but temporarily shelved the effort upon realizing that its ideas would work just as well in a mobile phone.[24] The iPad's internal codename was K48, which was revealed in the court case surrounding