Cebit 2000: The Chancellor gets SMS

What is now the iPad was "skeye.pad at Cebit ten years ago:" But the so-called flopped Research Panel inspiron 1521 battery. A similar fate befell other alleged innovation.

iPad The computer screen will enforce the electronics giant Apple in the coming months a new device category in the market. But the idea of a "tablet computer" without a hardware keyboard is not really new. Ten years on the computer fair Cebit 2000, the company presented Hoeft & Wessel from Hanover, a "Research Panel", which came very close to the concept of the iPad. should "skeye.pad with the" you can use a wireless connection or the wireless standard DECT wireless surf the internet.

The "Research Panel" from Hanover, but then received a Best of CeBIT Award of the journal chip. In line for the mass market the device, however, was never built. The developers at Hoeft & Wessel built the prototypes later, various special rugged mobile devices, which are today such as the Yellow inspiron 1720 battery Angels of the ADAC in use or transport companies in the logistics management of their truck to help. The screens of the ticket machines in the DB eventually go back to the Research Panel Development in Hanover.

Because of the then forthcoming World Expo 2000, CeBIT was a decade ago not to the traditional part-time instead, but already in February. The industry had just successfully completed the Year 2000 problem and mastered before bursting confidence. The feared chaos to the critical date change did not materialize. Trade and Industry looked optimistically forward. This was then reflected in the fair: More than 750,000 visitors came despite the lousy weather to Cebit 2000th Many of the 7800 exhibitors came from that time with full order books and sales projections best from Hannover.

The then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) promised to open the high-tech show, modeled after the United States a sort of "Green Card introduce." This should programmers, database specialists and other computer experts from countries outside the European Union and to get a temporary work permit in Germany. About the "crash program to meet the need for IT specialists" came in the years to 20,000 IT professionals in Germany. The scheme ran from late 2004 and was replaced by a new immigration law, are also preferred by IT professionals at the residence in relation to other migrant workers from outside Europe.

Schröder had at that time the economic importance of the skills shortages identified. In contrast to his successor at the Federal Chancellery Schröder had privately so his troubles with communication technology. At Cebit 2000, left the Chancellor by the then head of AOL Europe, Andreas Schmidt shows how to send a short message with the phone. The Chancellor is here! He gets just said SMS, but knows the not yet anyway, "said one observer of the scene at that time.

The AOL online service provided on the Cebit 2000 with Deutsche Telekom in a race to bring the German schools to the Internet. Ten years later, AOL has withdrawn after a series of failures from the German market.

At that time, but also looked for AOL’s future still bright. A year before the bursting of the Internet bubble were touted at the Cebit 2000 nor as visionary technology, which today are more smiles. One could admire in the halls a "computer to put on," at the micro-computer and put batteries barely visible in the pockets of a thick, shiny silver vest. This device should be used as a mobile translator for city tours.

Strange fantasies also included a Bluetooth wireless technology, which today is lenovo battery used mainly in mobile phones and wireless headphones. Jörg Gleisner from the telecom company Ericsson praised at the time the benefits of information technology in this way: "You can regulate the cell phone from the kitchen the Volume on the TV or from work the washing machine on." The mobile phone as a remote control for delicate fabrics, but then he on the market is not really taken off.