1993

In 1993, Apple worked on the Newton MessagePad, a tablet-like personal digital assistant (PDA). John Sculley, Apple's chief executive officer, led the development. The MessagePad was poorly received for its indecipherable handwriting recognition feature and was discontinued at the direction of Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1998 after an internal power struggle. Apple also prototyped a PowerBook Duo–based tablet computer but decided not to release it to avoid hurting MessagePad sales.
In May 2004, Apple filed a design trademark patent in Europe for a handheld computer, hypothetically referencing the iPad, beginning a new round of speculation that led to a 2003 report of Apple-affiliated manufacturer Quantaleaking Apple's orders for wireless displays. In May 2005, Apple filed US Design Patent No. D504,889 that included an illustration depicting a man touching and using a tablet device. In August 2008, Apple filed a 50-page patent application that includes an illustration of hands touching and gesturing on a tablet computer. In September 2009, Taiwan Economic News, citing "industry sources", reported the tablet computer Apple was working on would be announced in February 2010, although the announcement was made in that year's January.
The iPad's concept predates that of the iPhone, although the iPhone was developed and released before the iPad. In 1991, Apple's chief design officer Jonathan Ive devised an industrial design of a stylus-based tablet, the Macintosh Folio, which led to the development of a larger tablet prototype project codenamed K48 that Apple began in 2004. Ive sought to develop the tablet first but came to an agreement with Jobs the iPhone was more important and should be prioritized.