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Microsoft's Risky Tablet Announcement

itwbennett writes "The New York Times describes the tablet announcement that Steve Ballmer is supposed to make in his CES opening keynote tonight as 'one of Steve Ballmer's riskiest trade show moves in years.' And blogger Peter Smith is in complete agreement. Here's why: 'Whether or not this announcement is intended as a direct response to the much-rumored Apple event that may or may not be happening on January 27th, consumers will perceive it as one,' says Smith. And if Microsoft unveils a traditional tablet then 'they'll be up against the (presumably more expensive) iTablet and the cult of Apple.' But if the device is the dual-screen Courier that we heard about back in September then it'll be up against the (presumably less expensive) enTourage eDGe, says Smith."

4 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Courier by nine-times · · Score: 4, Informative

    The huge borders of enTourage eDGe really put me off.

    The article says that it's a prototype, and the production version is supposed to be a lot more sleek.

  2. The Zune? Nope. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to Amazon's best seller list the top *17* music players are made by Apple. Numbers 18 & 19 are Sandisks. Then comes another iPod. Zune is the 21st in popularity.

  3. Re:1st vendor to release a PADD from TNG gets my $ by aztektum · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
  4. Re:A Mimic Device Is Precisely What They Want by Arcady13 · · Score: 4, Informative

    (I prefer non apple so it will at least display and allow markup on the evil Office suite files)

    You know that they make Office for Mac, right? And that the iPhone/Touch can display Office files out of the box, right? There are iPhone/Touch apps to allow you to edit them too.