Ballmer Promises Windows Tablets By Christmas

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed that there will be tablets running Microsoft’s Windows operating system available by Christmas.

In a rare visit to London, Ballmer addressed an audience of students and press at the London School of Economics: “We as a company will need to cover all form factors,” he said. “You’ll see slates with Windows on them – you’ll see them this Christmas.”

Microsoft has been experimenting with tablets for some time – with rumours of a dual-touchscreen device known as Courier emerging as early as last year. The Courier project was reportedly canned in April but, according to Ballmer, Microsoft has continued to work with the tablet form factor “as both a productivity device and consumption device”.

Windows 7 tablet from HP?

While Ballmer gave no further details about the forthcoming tablets, he was most likely referring to the widely-rumoured HP Windows 7 Slate – billed as a tablet for the enterprise – that HP’s Todd Bradley hinted at back in July. (Palm’s WebOS is expected to appear on the company’s consumer-oriented tablets, following its acquisition of the company earlier this year.)

A recent YouTube video, claiming to demonstrate a prototype of HP’s Windows 7 tablet, prompted US eWEEK journalist Nicholas Kolakowski to describe it as a “trainwreck in the making”.

“If that’s really a prototype of the upcoming HP Slate running Windows 7, and if it’s anything close to the finished product, then they might as well stamp ‘R.M.S. Titanic’ on the side,” he wrote. “Why include a ‘CTRL-ALT-DEL’ button on the device’s chassis unless you expect the software to crash on a regular basis?”

However, Microsoft is hoping that new tablets running Windows 7 will give it a foothold in an extremely lucrative market. With devices such as the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab experiencing widespread success, and a slew of new low-cost tablets hitting the market, Microsoft cannot afford to be left behind.

IT market analysis firm In-Stat recently predicted that the tablet market will see a compound annual growth rate of 123.6 percent by 2014, while IDC expects worldwide media tablet shipments to grow from 7.6 million units in 2010 to more than 46 million units in 2014. “Sales of traditional notebooks appear to be feeling pressure from the iPad, causing a scramble by vendors to launch iPad-like tablets,” said UBS Investment Research analyst Maynard Um in a research note.

Smart devices and the cloud

Ballmer’s mention of tablets comes ahead of Microsoft’s press conference on 11 October in New York, where the company will launch its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. There is some speculation that Microsoft will also use the event to talk about the upcoming Windows slate computers.

“With smarter devices, people are now connecting with the cloud in intelligent ways,” said Ballmer. He went on to claim that Microsoft is well-positioned within the cloud space – particularly in relation to the enterprise market.

“The fact that we’ve got a strategy for public and private cloud, I really like where we are on the enterprise side,” he said. “I feel like we are way ahead of whatever the second closest competitor is.” However, he admitted that there were still opportunities for Microsoft in the consumer market.

“This technology will drive productivity, will drive innovation, will drive advance,” said Ballmer. “It has the potential for making technology more affordable rather than less affordable, as it gives people the opportunity to share resources in the cloud rather than building their own proprietary technologies.”