Microsoft gears up to take iPad head on

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The HP-Microsoft tablet, a Slate prototype, looking similar to Amazon's Kindle didn’t last long as the struggling project was scrapped by both Microsoft and HP.

The move to launch Microsoft Windows-based tablet may be due to the threat Microsoft is facing from Apple’s iPad and various other similar touch-screen devices running on Android, Web OS and other lightweight mobile operating systems.

Though Microsoft currently earns more than $10 billion in profit annually from its Windows desktop operating system, with many competing operating systems mushrooming in the market, Microsoft is increasingly coming under pressure.

To brighten up its stake in the OS segment, the launch of Windows-based Slate PC is critical for Microsoft. Ballmer said, “This year one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and Windows 7 phones... Over the course of the next several months you will see a range of Windows 7-based slates that I think you'll find quite impressive. This is a terribly important area for us. We are hard-core about this."

Microsoft has teamed up with Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony to make the tablet PC. "They'll come with keyboards, they'll come without keyboards, they'll be dockable, there will be many form factors, many price points, many sizes," said Ballmer.

"But they will all run Windows 7. They will run Windows 7 applications. They will run Office," said Ballmer emphatically.

“On the phone side we missed a generation with Windows Mobile. We really did miss almost a release cycle, but Windows Phone 7 which we had a chance to debut at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year has received really quite remarkable reviews."

Microsoft is keen not to give to Apple entirely in the portable computing market. The completely reworked Windows Phone 7 has the confidence of Ballmer who said at the conference, “I think we will give you a set of Windows-based devices people will be proud to carry.”

However, it will not be easy for Windows 7 to compete in the mobile platform, as the global share of the smartphone market of Windows Mobile has declined significantly down to 2 per cent as Google, Apple and Blackberry introduced compelling mobile platforms while Microsoft remained with its aging Windows 6.5.x platform.

The reworked Windows Phone 7 OS resembles HP’s WebOS, which will allow apps to be created across devices, the feature that was not available in the earlier planned Slate version of Microsoft. Ballmer is still uncertain about the release date of Slate PCs as smartphones with Windows 7 has topped the priority list.

After Windows XP, Windows 7 OS has gained significant amount of admirers around the world. Now, if Microsoft manages to build devices on Windows 7 platform, then its competition with Apple and Google will be worth watching.