Ballmer sees bright Tablet future for Microsoft
by Steven Mostyn - Jul 30 2010, 06:41
Working with hardware clients to bring Apple's iPad to heel. Image: Rain Rannu/Flickr.
When it comes to the emerging popularity of tablet devices, Microsoft may have chosen to shelve its own Courier concept, but that doesn’t mean the American software giant isn’t still pushing to be a major market player.
More pointedly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has this week revealed the company is hard at work with its hardware clients to ensure that Apple’s hot-selling iPad has plenty of rival platforms to contend with – all of them powered by the Windows 7 operating system.
While openly acknowledging the iPad’s sales momentum, Ballmer was keen to make clear that Microsoft’s “job-one urgency” remains tightly focused on tempering the runaway sales attributed to Apple’s touch-screen tablet.
“We have got to make things happen with Windows 7 on slates,” he said during a Thursday meeting with financial analysts. “We’re in the process of doing that as we speak. As focused as we are on this, our partners are also focused on this to deliver systems and chips to make this happen.”
According to Ballmer, the promised surge of Windows-powered tablet devices will hit the market very soon, with many likely to be priced below the iPad.
He also said host platforms will be optimised via the support of a new Intel CPU (codename ‘Oak Trail’) that’s been created specifically for tablet computers running Windows 7.
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