Windows Seven coming on more slates later this year says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Tablet PC or the pen- enabled computer as Microsoft calls it, have been almost entirely credited to Apple since the release of the iPad in the first quarter of this year. It had been a long time since we heard anything about the tablet PC’s from Microsoft. But now Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft has come up with a statement that the company will be launching more tablet computers based on Windows 7 later this year.
The Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also confirmed that the devices will be launched by Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony. All of which are expected to arrive this year. The message came out of the Worldwide Partner Conference. However the company CEO was very careful not to reveal anything about the features of the tablets as it knows that the info will be serving well when they need to gather publicity for the device before its release.
We already know about the various tablets released by the companies whose names have come up as the possible manufacturers like the ASUS Eee Pad EP121, which was introduced at Computex, and the dual-screen Libretto W100 that Toshiba announced last month, but then the idea of Dell, Samsung, and Sony releasing Windows 7 slates is new. The ASUS Eee Pee EP121 a high-end tablet that offers a complete Windows 7 experience. It features a dual core Intel CPU (which CPU is still TBD), a 12-inch 1366×768 screen, and Windows 7 home premium, though with a nice fancy touch UI. It has a couple of docking stations available, including a keyboard docking station that turns the EP121 into a 12-inch notebook.
Whereas the Libretto W100 sports two 7-inches multi touch displays (1024 x 600 resolutions). The specs include an Intel ultra-voltage processor (no Atom here), a 62GB solid-state drive, 2GB of RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium. You’ll also find a tiny 1-megapixel HD webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a microSD card slot, one USB 2.0 port, and an 8-cell battery. Sadly, there’s no talk of mobile broadband or any 3G connectivity whatsoever.
The brief summary from Ballmer included that the devices would come in with several price points and several form factors. Additionally, it was mentioned that some would be able to handle digital ink, some would be dockable, some would be touch only and some would sport keyboards. Like I said, pretty generic. Noticeably absent from Ballmer’s list of manufacturers is HP, whose Slate tablet has reportedly been dropped, even though Ballmer himself showed it off at CES in January. Whatever be the case many experts have already counted out the utility of a windows 7 on tablet PC but Microsoft still needs to sell more tablet computers as Apple sold 3 Million of the same in three months amid the rumours of it being high priced and malfunctioned.
It is clear that the market for a thin but large, touch-screened thing-that-isn’t-a-phone is on a high. So what if that slab only does 85 percent of what the PC can do?
