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Ballmer pushes slates but reveals few details

Microsoft's chief executive sought to address some common questions raised by analysts, but his answers may not have been exactly what they were looking for.

While Microsoft reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue last week, the company was also criticized for lacking a well-developed strategy for slate PCs, and for continuing to struggle with some of its consumer businesses.

CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about those and other topics during Microsoft's annual financial analyst meeting at the company's headquarters in Redmond.

He broached the topic of slates by noting that Windows has been available on slates and tablets for years. While that's true, Apple, which has only just entered the market, has generated significant buzz and sales with its iPad.

"Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a product," Ballmer said, before admitting that "they've certainly sold more than I'd like them to sell."

"For us, the job is to say we have a lot of [intellectual property] and software and we've done a lot of work on ink and touch," he said. "We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to with Windows 7 on slates. We're in the process of doing that as we speak."

He was not more specific, however. "We've got to push right now with our hardware partners. People will say, 'When?' I'll say, 'As soon as they are ready, and it is job-one urgency.' Nobody is sleeping at the switch," he said.

When pushed for more details during a question-and-answer period, Ballmer would only say that new slates will be out in "not a heck of a long time."

Ballmer hinted that some devices that have been promised in the slate category might not materialize. He promoted an HP slate earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show but Microsoft has said little about it since, and some observers wonder about HP's commitment to the device since it purchased Palm.

HP listed a Windows-based slate device on its website recently, but it's unclear if the company still plans to sell the product. HP has said that it wants to use Palm's WebOS on tablet computers.

"There will be things we've talked about in the past that may or may not ship and new things that will ship," Ballmer said.