Way to Sell Those Windows 7 Tablets, Craig
“The tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available wherever you want it, which is why I’m already using a tablet as my everyday computer. It’s a PC that is virtually without limits–and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”
Good thing Microsoft missed the train on tablets. Because it turns out the things don’t have much longevity.
In fact, the age of the tablet PC, which Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates heralded a decade ago and Apple only recently ushered in, is already drawing to a close. This according to Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, who’s not sure tablets have much of a future.
Speaking at an economic development lunch in Sydney, Australia, this week, Mundie said he didn’t know whether tablets like the iPad would “remain with us.”
“I think there’s an important distinction–and frankly one we didn’t jump on at Microsoft fast enough–between mobile and portable,” he said. “Mobile is something that you want to use while you’re moving, and portable is something that you move and then use. These are going to bump into one another a little bit and so today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between. Personally I don’t know whether that space will be a persistent one or not.”
For Mundie’s sake, let’s hope it persists at least until the fall of 2012, when Microsoft is expected to release a version of Windows 7 for tablets.
[Image credit: Microsoft]
