Does the Microsoft co-founder who pushed tablet computers back in 2001 think that the iPad is the perfect version? And what about the iPhone, which competes with Windows Mobile?

Bill Gates has said in an interview with the news site Bnet that he doesn't think the iPad is a dramatic move compared to what Microsoft has done with tablet computers - but admitted that he is envious of the iPhone's features.

Interviewed by Brent Schlender, Gates - who said in 2001 that he thought tablet computers would be the predominant form of computers sold "within five years" (but saw that prediction fail), was lukewarm at best.

"You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard - in other words a netbook - will be the mainstream on that," he told Schlender.

Gates has long been a proponent of voice recognition technology for computers: in 1998 he tried to demonstrate a voice-drive system at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle, and forecast that by 2011 computers would be able to recognise their owners' faces and voices.

But the iPad, which is a completely touch-driven system, using fingers rather than an easily-misplaced stylus for its control - just like the iPhone - does not impress him in the same way.

"So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"

Gates's admission that he looked at the iPhone, unveiled three years ago in January 2007 and which went on sale in June that year, and thought that "Microsoft didn't aim high enough" is a startling revelation from the man who drove the company to focus on mobile.

The iPhone has leapfrogged Windows Mobile in share of the smartphone market since its launch; Microsoft has not released figures for the number of licences sold for the past financial year, but it has seen high-profile defections by companies such as HTC to Google's Android mobile operating system.

The iPad has garnered great excitement from publishers and TV companies which see the possibility of selling more content through online stores akin to the iTunes Music Store and App Store.

However Cambridge City Council has denied reports that it was planning to buy a number of iPads for its councillors in order to save paper. It called the reports in the local and national press incorrect, and implied that it is instead looking at Windows-based tablets.