Windows 7 This year's Windows 7 slates Not under

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is on the European tour this week, and a quantity of news outlets are reporting that Ballmer has mentioned again — for at least the third time this year — that there will be Windows 7 slates out in time for holiday 2010.Most of the reports I;ve read today seem to have forgotten about Ballmer;s summer speeches where he promised the same. At the company;s annual Worldwide Partner Conference,Windows 7 Home Basic Key, Ballmer showed a slide listing far more than 20 vendors that were on the Windows tablet/slate bandwagon. (Ballmer didn;t distinguish between slates running Windows 7 vs. slates running Windows Embedded Compact 7 — which are two quite different things.)If Microsoft does end up showing off any of this year;s Windows slates at its October 11 Consumer Open House events in New York and London,Windows 7 Activation Key, where it will be launching Windows Phone 7, I;d bet they;ll be models we;ve seen demonstrated earlier this year at Computex or other Microsoft conferences. I;m doubtful they;ll be much to write home about.Most of today;s reports about Ballmer;s slate commitments also are failing to mention his July remarks regarding their limitations. Ballmer admitted this summer that the real iPad competitors from Microsoft;s partners — which will still be running Windows 7 — won;t be out till later in 2011,Microsoft Office 2010 Product Key, some time after Intel ships its Oak Trail processors.This year;s Windows 7 slates are unlikely to have very good battery life; a standard,Office Professional, touch-centric interface; or anything like the Apple iTunes store. These are all things consumers are coming to expect when they;re in the market for slates.Microsoft is planning to make Windows 8 optimized to run on slates from the get-go and is expected to work with OEMs to launch app stores when Windows 8 is released (supposedly 2012). That;s one heck of a head start for Apple and Android/Google OS slates….I know I wouldn;t want one of this year;s Windows 7 slates under my Christmas tree. The 2011 crop of Windows slates should be better. If I were Ballmer,Office 2010 Standard Key, I;d stop crowing about Generation 1 of the Windows 7 slates and wait for something much more credible to trumpet….