Microsoft employees have already taken a few shots at Apple's iPad, but it has to cause a special kind of hurt when Bill Gates himself takes the time out of his day to bash a product."It is a humorous world in how Microsoft is much more open than Apple," said Brandon Watson, the director of product management in the developer platform at Microsoft, in an interview with Technologizer.

"The iPad will be an alternative to netbooks and e-readers, but to me it's a novelty that I might want for my living room, but nothing more," Michael Cocanower, president of Phoenix-based ITSynergy said to ChannelWeb.

These thoughts have been echoed across the Web the last two weeks since Apple announced the iPad. It was only today that an opinion sprang from Bill Gates. Here's what he had to say:

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. 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."

But Microsoft already had its day in the tablet sun, so to speak. Windows PC Tablet edition, which first came to light in 2002 and was revised later in 2005, never caught on, even in the enterprise where it was been pitched heavily as an clipboard alternative. I searched high and low for a quote from Steve Jobs on the original Tablet PCs, but I couldn't find one. Whatever he said back in 2002, here in 2010, Gates isn't impressed with Jobs' baby, the iPad.

My favorite line, though, is what Gates thought of the iPhone in 2007, "Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough." That's classic.

That doesn't quite gel with Ballmer's thoughts on the iPhone back in 2007. He called it the "most expensive phone" and "not suitable for business" use. Ballmer hasn't opened his mouth about the iPad yet. I am sure he will eventually.

For now, Ballmer can sit back and let Gates' words do all the talking for him.