Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer hypes Windows 7-based slates, makes no mention of HP when touting partners.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNN1217743120100712?rpc=44

At Microsoft's annual partner conference in Washington, D.C. today, CEO Steve Balmer stressed that Windows 7-based "slate" devices are one of the most important things that his company will do this year. According to the Reuters article credited above:

“This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates,” said Ballmer. “This is a terribly important area for us.”

He then went on to list the partners who have plans to release Windows 7-based tablet devices this year, mentioning Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and several other PC makers. But he failed to mention Microsoft's largest partner by far -- HP. Was this an unlikely oversight, or could it be that HP has elected to pass on using a desktop OS from Microsoft and instead has chosen to pursue tablets running their recently acquired WebOS? For years, tablets running a desktop OS have failed to attract customers beyond a small niche group. This has been primarily due to the fact that a desktop OS is not ideally suited for a touch interface.

HP's recently acquired WebOS, however, is built from the ground up to be an OS ideally suited for mobile devices that rely on a touch interface. Everything from launching apps, to editing documents, to full interaction with the OS itself. There is no need for an interpretation layer that has to translate touch actions over to mouse and keyboard actions that the OS is built upon, as Windows 7 does. Many will claim that Windows 7 was built from day one to support touch. This is true to a point. But supporting touch by translating touch actions over to mouse and keyboard actions is not the same as an OS that uses touch as its main interface. WebOS has been designed to be a touch OS, not to just support touch actions.

Of course, all we need to do is compare the history of this product category with what is going on currently. And to do this, we have to mention Apple's recent success with the iPad. The iPad is a tablet device that is running iOS, which was originally introduced on the iPhone. But it is pretty obvious that the iPad's success is largely due to the combination of the touch interface provided by iOS combined with the industrial design of the hardware. Apple could have easily ported Mac OS X over to the iPad by adding a layer on top of OS X that interpreted touch interactions and then translated those actions into standard mouse and keyboard actions. And that would've been a mistake. Instead, they took the core of OS X and built a new OS on top of it that uses a touch-based GUI. And so far, it's worked like game busters! Three million iPads later (and counting), Apple has shown that it's better to use an OS that is designed for touch. And it appears that HP has taken a bold move and followed this approach by acquiring Palm and the WebOS. Let's hope this is truly the case.

But the question now becomes, did Balmer fail to mention HP because HP has dropped their plans to release their previously demoed HP Slate as a Win 7 device and instead decided to take Apple's approach by using an OS specifically designed for touch? In my humble opinion, I think it would be a brilliant move by HP to do just that. After all, doing the same thing time and again and expecting different results is insane. History has demonstrated time and again that touch is an entirely different interface, and the interface is a key part of what makes tablet devices the talk of the technology world here lately.

I do not claim to know what HP's plans to do. But it makes more sense to me for HP to differentiate itself by releasing truly compelling tablet devices that stand a chance to compete with Apple's iPad and the future Android tablets that are bound to hit the market. Since HP has a strategic advantage with WebOS (which is a very nice mobile OS, by the way), it makes sense for them to make this move now instead of later. Too many signs are pointing in this direction.

One thing has to be mentioned, though. Microsoft's own website for promoting Windows 7 tablet devices still shows HP as a major partner. But to what extent? I sense some tension between HP and Microsoft. And Balmer's statements today adds more fuel to my fire. Since HP is Microsoft's largest partner, you'd think there'd be no better way to pimp Windows 7 slates than to mention HP, the same HP that accompanied Balmer when he got up on stage to demo the HP Slate at CES 2010. But times have obviously changed since HP's Palm purchase. And I'm thinking HP's focus is now on WebOS for their tablet devices. Only time will tell.

As a last point, I can't help but wonder...

Why hasn't Microsoft recognized their past failures with Windows-based tablets and made a move to create a true touch-based OS for mobile devices? Microsoft is a company with many brilliant minds at their disposal. Surely someone there has pointed out this need. Maybe they were too late to make their move. Maybe they are stuck in their antiquated mindset of shoving Windows on every thing they can find. Maybe they think that one miraculous day Windows will actually work on a tablet to the point of actually competing with touch-based OS devices. Nah. That would be silly. To ignore history is to repeat history's mistakes.

iOS is a touch-based OS. Android is a touch-based OS. WebOS is a touch-based OS. To seriously compete in this redefined tablet space, HP would be smart to use the WebOS that they invested so much into. And Microsoft would be smart to focus a lot of resources to creating a new, touch-based OS of their own. But they better do it quick. This market isn't waiting for anyone to catch up.