Lord Alan Sugar has expressed his regret at not continuing with an early PDA called the PenPad, with the UK tech tycoon telling the T3 Awards that giving up too early on the product opened the door for the likes of Palm and Apple.
Sugar picked up the Outstanding Contribution to Technology award at the event, and in a Q&A admitted that the product he was most proud of was one that he had given up on too soon.
"We made a product once that was very futuristic. It was called the PenPad and for want of a better word it was a handheld PDA and it set the scene for touchscreens and things like that," he said.
Don't give up...
"The lesson for young people here to learn is don't give up too quickly because we gave up on a product we were very proud of, and one that never made us any money - but people like Palm Pilot and that other company called Apple carried on and made quite a lot of money out of that technology.
"So that was a great product, but one which we were very proud of."
The former Spurs owner also talked about his incredulity that people would queue for an iPhone.
"I don't think anyone needs it that badly," he said. "I don't queue for anything; my kids were very upset when I wouldn't queue up at Disneyworld."
