While barely holding its own in the smartphone business after some recent setbacks, Microsoft is embracing the mobile Internet by jumping into the tablet market with both feet, CEO Steve Ballmer declared Monday.
“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,” Ballmer said in his keynote address at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. “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.”
The software giant will provide its Windows 7 operating systems to leading manufacturer partners such as Dell, Samsung, ASUS, Toshiba and Sony, with devices expected by the end of the year.
Those companies may find themselves in a race with manufacturers using Google’s popular Android operating system on tablets, such as LG and HTC, according to industry rumors.
In January, Ballmer introduced tablet devices running Windows 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that were made by Pegatron, ARCHOS and Hewlett-Packard, none of which have hit the market yet. HP has since dropped its Slate computer concept and has since taken over Palm, which makes it likely the company will market a tablet based on Palm’s webOS rather than Windows.
It was Apple’s introduction of the iPad in January and its highly successful launch in April that blew open the tablet market, sparking a competitive rush. But devices have yet to emerge that put practicality ahead of fun.
“What happens if the OS companies claim a ‘tablet war’ and nobody shows up to fight?” asked Jeff Orr, principal analyst of mobile devices for ABI Research. “The media tablet market is not very exciting so far; perhaps an experiment more than…