If you’re interested in purchasing a tablet PC with Windows 7 this year, and experienced disappointment at the announcement that HP was cancelling plans for the Slate, have no fear. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that several more Win 7 tablets will be released by the end of this year. The announcement came Monday morning in front of a crowd of 14,000 attendees at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington DC.
Ballmer made a point of stating that Microsoft is “all in” with regards to supporting the tablet market. "One of the most important things we'll do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and with Win 7 phones," he said. "This is a terribly important area for us. It certainly is an area where we feel all the energy, vigor and push to innovate, to drive hard and compete."
Microsoft partners who have committed to launching tablets by the end of 2010 include Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony. Styles will vary, with some that will include attached keyboards and others completely touch-based, but dockable, like the Apple iPad. Models will also be available at various price points.
Details regarding specs are not yet available, but let’s hope that there will be some improvement over the HP Slate, which was killed before it even reached the light of day. The Slate had been criticized because of the 5-hour battery life, half that of the iPad, and questions surrounding whether the Intel Atom mobile processor could efficiently handle a power-hungry, desktop-class OS such as Windows 7.
I’m eager to see if Microsoft has made changes to the Win 7 OS especially for tablets, and what hardware manufacturers are using for these new portable systems. For now, it’s still anyone’s guess.
