Non-Existent Microsoft Tablet Already Drawing Criticism
    
		 Sometimes, it just stinks to be Microsoft. Oh, sure, there are the  billions in revenues, the embarrassingly dominant market share in huge sectors  like operating systems and the picturesque surroundings of Greater Seattle  around the company's headquarters. 
Still, though, it's not easy being...whatever color Microsoft is. Maybe  electric blue like its executives' dress shirts, as opposed to that navy IBM  blue. But we digress. This week, rumors leaked that Microsoft will be introducing  a tablet computer, a competitor to the iPad, at the Consumer Electronics Show  next week. 
Now, these are rumors. Microsoft has confirmed nothing. Only The New York Times is talking about this  device in definite terms, and even its details are sketchy. Officially, this  tablet doesn't exist. Nevertheless, everybody hates it.
Well, maybe not everybody -- but some critics already do, based on  sketchy details and what might or might not be an image of the device (made, in  this case, by Samsung).  Now, we're not saying that the Windows tablet is going to set the world on  fire. It might be awful. It might be mediocre. It might be brilliant.
What it won't be, though, is the iPad, and it seems as though that's  what critics want it to be. But Microsoft doesn't need to try to reinvent the  iPad. In fact, that would be an embarrassment and a market disaster (hello,  Zune). No, there are things Microsoft can do with tablet computers that could  actually bring value to the space.
If this device really does have a slip-out keyboard, we already like it  better than the iPad. If it's cheaper than the Apple device, we like it even  more. And does the iPad run Flash yet? Maybe it does by now (we can't remember...),  but if we remember correctly it didn't for a while. Compatibility shouldn't be  a problem with a Windows tablet. We say shouldn't remembering cautiously the Vista debacle, but surely Microsoft has learned its  lesson. 
So, could we all hold off on trashing Microsoft for a product it hasn't  even released yet? The anti-Microsoft cabal in the pundisphere simply cannot  wait to jump on Redmond  at every opportunity. Here at RCPU, we're going to make sure that the Microsoft  tablet is lousy before we start mocking it relentlessly. 
Do you have any early impressions of the leaked Microsoft tablet? Send  them to [email protected].
 
	Posted by Lee Pender on December 15, 2010