The Mac was not an imitation Alto. Xerox tried and failed subsequently to commercialize the Alto. The iPod was not an imitation Diamond Rio; the iPod could fit in your pocket and hold most people's entire music collection, rather than a few dozen songs. IPhones are not Blackberries; the latter were black & white email centric keyboard centric non-touch business centric devices with modest compute and consumer media features and no comparable app & music ecosystem. iPads are not Microsoft Tablet PC's. Microsoft has launched generations of tablets going back to the late 80's/early 90's, none of which were very successful.
