For those of you who think the iPad sucks...

We are hardcore about tablets - Ballmer

We are hardcore about tablets - Ballmer | News.com.au

Go MS go!

Doubt I would get one, but you never know..... Shame they could not have been innovative and come out with a WinMo device first, and had an app store ready .... instead of playing catch up....

Hey look at that, uncle fester has an iPad with a crappy os.

I'm forming a random group of hooligans to kick the living crap out of netbook users at Starbucks. Is that hard core enough?

How old is this, he is holding a the HP Slate that was killed.

Who wants to wait 1-4 minutes for a device to wake up???

Windows 7 boots in less than 30 seconds on a solid state disk. You can probably flash it rom and make it instant on like the iPad. The Ipad takes well over a minute if you do a full boot up.

MS is capable of making a great tablet. They have many of the pieces already in place. Their handwriting recognition and searchable ink stuff is really great. They just need to commit real resources into making the experience touch and pend friendly. There are already some great tablets out there, but they are in the $2000-3000 price range.

I'm guessing we are a year away from seeing the real deal from MS. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my iPad and see where things are when the time comes to replace it.

The instant on is what I like about the iPad, if I could get that with a Windows machine that would run Windows programs and be able to use usb and memory cards etc I would certainly take a look. But to me even 30 seconds is to long.

how and where can I join?

OH YEAH! Count me in.

I'm with Pallentx on this.
It's not so much the hardware as the software that will be critical.
My only worry is the emphasis on win7.

Apple's success comes through what it chooses to leave out and what it choses to concentrate on to achieve the best user experience.
Microsoft's approach is to give as many options as possible.
Since everything is a compromise between cost, usage, convenience etc., I suspect the latter approach will be reflected in the cost.

One thing I have enjoyed about the iPad has been it's lack of multitasking. I like to concentrate on what I'm doing without distraction and any background tasks can be done on another machine.