Steve Ballmer: Microsoft are "hardcore" about Windows 7 tablets

Just because the Courier and the “Slate” have died the death, don’t think for one second that Microsoft have given up hope on the idea of Windows 7 tablets becoming the next big thing. Speaking at the Worldwide Partner Conference today an enthusiastic Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, insisted that the company were “hardcore” in their commitment to tablets running the big M’s OS.

“We want to give you a consumer-oriented device, but a device that fits and is manageable with today’s enterprise IT solutions,” Ballmer said. “They’ll come with keyboards, they’ll come without keyboards, they’ll be dockable, there’ll be many form factors, many price points, many sizes. But they will run Windows 7,” he concluded.

Partners already lined-up to deliver Windows 7 tablets include Asus, Dell, Samsung MSI, Sony and Toshiba. All are expected to reveal Windows 7-based hardware in the coming months, with Asus and MSI already having demoed their own kit at Computex.

However, one company who now look unlikely to be throwing their eggs into the Windows 7 tablet basket is HP. They abandoned work at what seemed a relatively late stage on the Slate device, citing that the Windows 7 platform was ill-suited to tablet technology. HP are now focussing on WebOS devices after having bought out Palm.

Via: Mashable