Windows 7 Tablets Coming This Year, Says Steve Ballmer

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Speaking to a public audience at the London School of Economics, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, said that we would see Windows 7-powered slate tablets coming “this Christmas”. Ballmer’s comments echo the one he made at this year’s CES, where he showed off the HP Slate (now destined as the HP Slate 500, and will be exclusively sold to enterprise customers) and other Win7 tablets.

Remember that Ballmer’s CES 2010 keynote was made before the iPad unveiling, and with Apple tablet rumors running high, a number of companies showed shotty tablet prototype in an effort to best the iPad. Despite the devices on display in Ballmer’s keynote, and the various other Win7 tablets promised us throughout the year, we have yet to see one of these devices.

Chinese-language outlet Commercial Times reports that Taiwan-based computer manufacturer ASUS will be making a Windows tablet, as well as an Android 3.0 tablet. Remember that Android 3.0 is supposed to be the version from Google thats optimized for tablets. UnwiredView reports that Lenovo, Toshiba and MSI are also expected to unveil Windows tablets by the end of the year, or early 2011.

Tablets are seen as a hot market right now. Despite the long time since its introduction, there is yet to be any serious Android or Windows competition to the iPad. The Dell Streak was supposed to be a tablet, but was saddled with a required voice plan in the US and is really a big phone. The Archos Android tablets are impressive looking, but many consumers are afraid of Archos’ nickel-and-dime approach to video codecs on their tablets, as well as Archos not being a member of the Open Handset Alliance.

There seems to be a lot of demand for a Windows 7-based tablet, both from the tech blog community and in general. What these people are missing, is that Windows-based tablets have been available for 10 years and they sold poorly, unless you work in auto insurance or a hospital. Regular TFTS readers will know I’m no fan of Steve Jobs, but he got one thing right – you should never have to navigate a desktop OS with your fingertip.