Microsoft Exec: Tablet Computers Are PCs

Microsoft sees tablet computers as a type of PC and that view was behind Microsoft's decision to develop versions of its next-generation Windows 8 desktop operating system for tablet computers, said Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone Division, in a keynote speech Tuesday at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).

Microsoft is adapting Windows 8 for tablets rather than use its Windows Phone 7 mobile OS for tablets. That's the opposite approach taken by Apple, which uses the iPhone's iOS in its popular iPad tablet, and Google, which licenses the Android mobile OS it built for smart phones to tablet manufacturers.

"We view a tablet as a sort of PC. We want people to do the sort of things they do on a PC on a tablet," Lees said in his keynote, citing networking, printing and using applications like Microsoft Office as examples.

In addition to running on traditional PCs, Microsoft has said that Windows 8, which is due sometime in 2012, will support systems-on-a-chip microprocessors from Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Qualcomm used in tablet computers. Microsoft, meanwhile, is pushing the Windows Phone operating system for use in smartphones like the one being developed by Nokia through its alliance with Microsoft.

Microsoft badly lags competitors in the mobile device market and some attribute that to the company's PC-centric view of the world.

Lees did predict that PCs, tablets and smartphones would eventually merge into what he called a "unified ecosystem." Microsoft has demonstrated an early version of the Windows 8 user interface that utilizes some of the same capabilities and look-and-feel features as Windows Phone 7.

Lees said Microsoft would say more about its tablet computing plans at its Build conference in Anaheim in mid-September.