After crashing the smartphone party and providing us with the classic case of 'too little too late', Microsoft is on its way to do an
encore. Apparently, the company is now preparing to make a splash in the tablet scene, however, after seeing its smartphone performance, we are not going to worry about the impact of that splash.
Recently, Microsoft demoed its next gen operating system, which has been designed to please all, PC People, Smartphone users and tablet junkies and now it is planning to use the platform for launching a new eponymous tablet. And you can expect the tablet to hit the markets some time in 2012. However, while demoing the new OS, Ballmer took the liberty to announce that it would be arriving in 2012, but the statement was later retracted by Microsoft. So, do we take this rumor as the affirmation for Ballmer's statement?
The introduction of the tablet will also make a major departure from Microsoft's established OS practices, where it licenses its operating system to other vendors. However, now the company would be going down the road, it has already traversed with Xbox 360 and Zune. Though, Zune met a gory, painful death in the hands of Apple iPod, but Xbox 360 is currently the cynosure in Microsoft HQ, which shows that given proper planning, once-powerful Microsoft is capable of doing the things the right way.
There are several points which go against the said rumors. If Microsoft launches its own branded tablet, it runs the risk of annoying its OEM partners but Google has already done it with a self-branded phone and still kept its OEMs on board.
New self-branded tablet is likely to increase overheads and supply chain management issues for Microsoft, but looks like that in its quest to become new Apple, Microsoft is willing to take some risks. So keep watching this space for more updates.