Satoru Iwata, the president of gaming giant Nintendo has responded to the indications circulating on the internet that the Wii U Gamepad is a copy of Apple's iPad tablet, by saying that the company thought of the idea for dual screens prior to the release of tablets.

Nintendo unveiled its next generation home console, the Wii U and also revealed the new GamePad controller, which included a touch screen along with traditional controls. The Wii U was revealed in 2011 and the console hit store shelves in 2012. Apple had launched its iPad tablet computer in 2010 and there are indications that Nintendo copied the device for its controller.

Iwata said, "We began talking about having another screen being a good idea around 2008. We thought thoroughly about our other options, but in the end, this was the idea, which was the most logical for us. So, in 2009, just as we began to press forward with this idea, sure that we were on the right track, this thing called an `iPad' came into the world."

He further said that about 2 and half years after the iPad was launched, Nintendo announced the Wii U at a time when the tablet revolution was happening and thus most people conceived that Nintendo simply added a tablet to its console. He pointed out that even as the company was working on the concept before the tablets were launched, it appeared that the company copied the concept due to the increasing popularity of the tablet computers at the time.