Photo: Microsoft Sweden / Flickr

With the iPad running circles around its tablet PC competitors, selling an insane 7 million units in its last quarter, you know whatever strategy Microsoft is cooking up to take on Apple’s dominance must be a good one. Well, that strategy for Windows 7 tablets seems to have been dug up, and, it’s difficult to call it ‘good’ in and of itself.

Here we come, enterprise

Microsoft’s reselling partners have received marketing material from their friends up top, encouraging them to market the Windows tablets as enterprise-friendly and Apple’s as enterprise unfriendly.

The PowerPoint deck spotted by ZDNet basically reads like a cryptic warning against the iPad, with a heavy focus on security issues. The usual suspects such as ‘mitigating against lost/stolen devices?’, or ‘secure connection IPs?’ or ‘remote access?’ make an appearance.

There is no enterprise

Perhaps this is a gutsy statement, but Microsoft is aiming at a non-existent market – there is no enterprise market for mobile devices. Or, to put that differently, the fast convergence between enterprise tastes and consumer tastes means that the enterprise is buying what the mass market is purchasing anyway, negating the need for enterprise-specific devices. Or, to put it bluntly, there seems evidence the enterprise is adopting the iPad itself already.

Sell yourself!

The point is Microsoft would be better served upselling what makes its Windows 7 tablets more compelling than Apple’s by outdoing Apple’s in all the areas that matter – applications, ease of use, and performance. Right now, it’s very difficult to say that MS is achieving this. Moreover, until Windows 8 and its barrage of tablets finally launches in 2012, it seems we’re stuck with Windows 7 tablets, which, to date, have not fared well commercially at all.

The Apple iPad was a revelation in 2010, and it looks set to only stretch its lead further in 2011.

Photo: Asus

Perhaps we live in a bubble, and just don’t get technology. In the midst of the proliferation of tablet PCs, surely the most ardent Microsoft fan believes the company would be better served to build a new mobile operating system for its tablet initiatives, over using Windows 7. At the very least, one would think that Microsoft would tweak Windows Phone 7 for those purposes. Well, the company pooh-poohed that last suggestion, and a report coming out of the New York Times suggests that MS is, in fact, revisiting its Windows 7 tablet strategy.

CES 2011 the big reveal

The New York Times Bits Blog says ‘people familiar with Microsoft’s plans’ have indicated that the company will use next month’s CES 2011 conference to unveil a number of Windows 7 tablet devices to take on Apple’s iPad and the growing number of Google Android tablet computers.

At least two of these devices will come from Dell and Samsung, with Sammy’s device being described as ‘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.’ Apparently it will run Windows 7 in landscape mode, with an additional layer added if you prop it in portrait mode and hide the keyboard. Could CES 2011 be in for a shock?

Goldman agrees MS needs a better strategy

Goldman Sachs tech analyst Sarah Friar isn’t so hot for Microsoft come 2011 due to, unsurprisingly, its mobile strategy. ‘A tablet response is still not forthcoming and our early read on Windows Phone 7 has not yet changed our view that Microsoft’s share in mobile OSes will remain at only the single-digit level’ is what she said in a research note, via TechFlash. While we’re not as sceptical about the Phone 7 mobile OS and its likelihood of success, we are in agreement that tablet-wise, it appears Microsoft’s strategy is a non-strategy, as bizarre as that sounds.

Who knows, though. We’ll see come CES 2011.

Photo: Martin Olsson / Wikimedia Commons

Though we were once led to believe Microsoft thought the future was in the cloud, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has now stated he believes that the future is in smart devices, where Microsoft is competing most prominently using Windows Phone 7 Series and Windows 7 tablets.

During the Worldwide Partner Conference, Ballmer said, ‘This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7 based slates and with Windows Phone 7 phones.’

Watch this space

After slating the iPad in a veiled attack, calling it ‘the other random device that’s not currently supported by corporate IT’, Ballmer beat his chest about the incoming flood of Windows 7 tablets, saying, ‘In the course of the next several months you will see a range of Windows 7 based slates which I think you’ll find quite impressive. They will come from the people you would expect: from Asus, from Dell, from Samsung, from Toshiba, from Sony.’

Point man

Ballmer is reportedly under a lot of pressure from Microsoft’s investors and shareholders to start performing. The company’s head honcho, who is rumoured to be heading up the Entertainment & Devices division that was shaken up prior to the execution of the Microsoft Kin project, needs a pair of huge victories to stem the tide for Microsoft. The software giant runs the risk of being too reliant on its legacy businesses to be able to compete effectively.

In this respect, Windows 7 tablets need to be, at the very least, a success, and Windows Phone 7 Series needs to be an absolute home run. The embarrassment felt across Redmond over the death of Microsoft Kin is said to have damaged the whole company’s morale, and patience may be wearing thin with Ballmer’s leadership capabilities.