Microsoft prepping tablets to offer alternative to iPad

This is getting exciting, New York Times reports that sources close to Microsoft have indicated that the software giant will be introducing a slew of tablet devices at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, or better known as CES, in Las Vegas next month. Yes, you’ve read correctly Microsoft will be launching more than one tablet at CES with collaboration with manufacturers like Dell and Samsung along with a few other manufacturing brands.

Microsoft hopes that its tablet devices will offer some competition to the tablet to beat — Apple iPad — which is not only a leader in the market but have garnered an iconic status amongst portable computers. Specifically Microsoft is looking to tap into a huge market of business users who want to “enjoy a slate for reading newspapers and magazines and then work on Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint while doing work,” said a person familiar with the project.

As expected, details of these are scarce at the moment but according to people familiar with the project say that the Microsoft Samsung device has a “similar in size and shape to the Apple iPad, although it is not as thin. It also includes a unique and slick keyboard that slides out from below for easy typing.”

In addition, the source revealed that the Samsung device will run Windows 7 when in landscape mode, but will also have a layered or skinned interface that will appear when the keyboard is hidden and the device is held in a portrait mode.

Also expected to make an appearance alongside the Microsoft tablets at CES is the successor of the Windows 7 OS, Windows 8. We’ll be looking forward to this and the many other updates coming from CES next month so do keep it locked on to SoyaCincau.com for the latest updates as it happens.

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