Wondering what’s next in mobile? Just wait a day. That’s not that much of an exaggeration as new smartphones and tablet releases are making news at least several times a week as of late. Every since Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reignited the market for tablet or slate devices, companies have been scrambling to bring out competitive models. Ironically, Microsoft showed its first Windows-based tablet back in 2000, but those pen input devices were relegated to niche status. Now, as Enterprise Mobile Today reports, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to make a big tablet announcement at next month’s CES show.
Microsoft has had an embarrassing fall, fending off accusations by competitors and critics that it has been talking big but still hasn’t delivered on CEO Steve Ballmer’s boast last summer that gaining a solid foothold in the evolving market for slate computers is Microsoft’s “job one.”
The company hopes that will start to change in early January when Ballmer is expected to show off a “slew” of new slate devices running Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 7 during his opening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.