Microsoft Partners See Hopeful Tablet Signs In Windows 8

This despite the fact that Microsoft is once again being vilified for refusing to entertain the idea of using Windows Phone 7 in tablets. On Tuesday at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, Andy Lees, president of the Windows Phone division, said doing so wouldn't fit with the strategy Microsoft has laid out for tablet devices.

"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 WPC keynote, listing networking, printing and Microsoft Office as examples.

Microsoft has long insisted that Apple's iPad and other tablets are merely PCs in a different form factor, and critics have cited this as a sign of Microsoft's inability to adjust to the realities of mobile device usage.

Andrew Brust, CEO of New York City-based Microsoft analyst firm Blue Badge Insights, acknowledges that Lees comments sounded dismissive of tablets but agrees with his general premise.

"Essentially, what Lees is saying was that tablets are real computers -- people use them for real work, and so they should not run a compromised operating system," Brust said. "It acknowledges the fact that people use the iPad as a device for work, and that Microsoft would underestimate that competition by building an underpowered tablet OS.

"When used for work, the iPad takes its users into dead ends that force them back to their laptop or desktop for certain tasks, and Lees is saying Windows tablets cannot have that limitation," Brust added.

In its marketing for Windows 7, Microsoft made the case that the OS is just as appropriate for tablets as it is for PCs, but many channel partners disagree. Meanwhile, Windows 7 tablets have been slow to reach the market, and HP has been quiet as a church mouse about how its Windows 7 powered Slate 500 has fared in the marketplace.

Clinton Fitch, a Dallas-based Microsoft Windows Mobile MVP (Most Valuable Professional), disagrees with Microsoft's premise that tablets are PCs and says this view hinders Microsoft.

"Tablets are content consumption and light content creation devices," Fitch said. "They're designed to provide information and experiences in a fundamentally very different way than PCs, and they shouldn't be viewed as a PC replacement, but rather, a PC augmentation."

In June, Microsoft offered the public a sneak peek at its Windows 8 operating system and explained that it's designed to work with touch-centric hardware across both x86 and ARM-based tablet devices. Windows 8 isn’t slated to arrive until sometime next year, but Brust says what he's seen so far suggests that Microsoft's vision for a tablet with full PC functionality is, in fact, attainable.

"As long as the UI is suitable for tablet work and the OS is engineered to be efficient with battery, memory, storage and other resources, then I’m all for giving the OS a full array of features that keep me from having to switch to another device to finish up my work," Brust said. "At most, I should have to dock the tablet to gain a keyboard and mouse, but I should not have to switch to a different machine. "

Fitch says Microsoft has made some progress when it comes to adopting a more realistic view of tablets and the tasks that end users are looking to achieve with them. However, he also thinks Microsoft will have to be careful not to repeat past mistakes.

"Everything that I've seen points to Windows 8 being a step in the right direction from a user interface perspective, but if Microsoft's answer to tablets is a 'flat netbook,' then they will struggle, mightily," said Fitch.