Was the Kindle prototyped 18 years ago?

Dan Bricklin, formerly of Slate, posted this rather fascinating 1991 PenPoint demonstration from GO Corporation. For anyone interested in Tablet PCs or UMPCs or eReaders it’s a must watch video.

A couple things come to mind while watching the video:

* Whatever happened to faxes? Email and the Internet have really changed how we share things.
* Connectivity and mobility have made sense for many years. Now the price is finally in reach and connectivity is almost a given.
* This is pre-Internet and it shows.
* There’s more ink support (such as gestures for editing) in the PenPoint system than across Office applications today on a Tablet PC.
* No video. No sound.
* Though there are games (mazes and crossword puzzles), the use cases are mostly geared around businesses.
* The machine is so slow that it reminds me of a Kindle DX. Look at the page update rate. What is it about two seconds?
* It even included a math app that was able to recognize simple equations.
* The table of contents metaphor makes me think this is more a prototype for an interactive Kindle (pen input that is) than anything else.
* You thought Vista was the first to introduce flicks for scrolling? Not exactly.

I can’t get over the fact that the device shown reminds me so much of a Kindle (maybe crossed with OneNote) in terms of speed, gray scale content, and its paging metaphor.

Of course a Kindle is a lot cheaper today, has much longer battery life, weighs a lot less, and is targetted as a reading device rather than a general computing machine. However, think about it if Amazon were to someday make a more interactive version. Now that would be something.

Thanks Dan for posting this video.