Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"New tablets will be available as soon as they are ready to ship and phones will be on the market this autumn, CEO Steve Ballmer said, setting up a key test of Microsoft's ability to capture the imagination of tech-savvy consumers."

Bill Rigby, reporting on Reuters.com, has some strongly worded quotes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer regarding a coming onslaught of tablets and smartphones based on Microsoft technologies. Ballmer minces no words, and clearly sets out its intention to up its game and to make its presence in these key markets felt by consumers and competitors. Regular readers of our site will know that Microsoft has some serious challenges to surmount if it wants to succeed long term in the smartphone and tablet marketplaces, but it's nice to know that the goal from the top is to "get to it" and compete harder than ever.

"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is in Singapore today to help promote the launch of Office 2010/Imagine Cup Awards Ceremony, nothing too surprising there.Evidently Steve took some questions from the audience and on Windows Phone 7, he reportedly had this to say: We're focused on putting Windows Phone 7 in phones, no plans for tablets."

So the source is a Twitter post (Through WMExperts), however this meshes with what I've heard about WP7 and tablets, namely that there won't be one (Since "what I've heard" is journalistic lingo for "I've heard nothing"). So we've got an iPhone OS tablet (the iPad), we've got Android tablets on the way, but we won't have a WP7 Tablet. And I don't think that's a bad thing, as WP7 is striving for something noble: A really great smartphone experience. Anyone going to miss a WP7 Tablet?