Ballmer: Tablets a top priority at Microsoft

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad has "sold more than I'd like them to sell," when quizzed about Microsoft's plan on the tablet scene. Ballmer spoke at Microsoft's annual financial analyst meeting at Redmond. 

Unfortunately for Microsoft, while Windows has been available on tablet PCs for a number of years now, it was rival Apple that successfully created a tablet device with widespread appeal--on its first try--and whose very success is completely rewriting the rules.

Today, everyone from top tier PC manufacturers such as Dell and HP, to smartphone makers such as RIM, LG and Samsung, are scrambling to announce or release tablet devices. This includes Microsoft, who Ballmer asserts is hard at work creating its own Windows-based tablets. 

Unfortunately, Microsoft has nothing new to reveal at the moment, other than Ballmer's promise that "They'll be shipping as soon as they are ready," and "It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch."

Even if Microsoft does manage push out a credible product in the end, the question is whether it will happen in time to catch up with the incredible momentum that is building around Apple's iOS and Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android. What do you think?

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at CNET News

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