Microsoft to build its own tablet?

There have been many rumours going around this week about Microsoft, from them looking to acquire Yammer for ESN capabilities to more recently about them building their own tablet. This would make perfect sense and is something that we at Equanet have long believed should happen. After all they clearly know how to build hardware, just look at the Xbox.

What makes this speculation (and it is pure speculation) even more realistic is the surprise press conference they are holding on Monday; speculation has increased that Microsoft is making a major shift and unveiling its own branded and designed tablet to compete with the iPad.

The invitation, which touted a "major Microsoft announcement," provided no details of what the announcement will be about.

In the meantime, reports have surfaced, including in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal's and others that Microsoft is expected to unveil its own tablet running either Windows 8 or Windows RT.

Microsoft has always required the support of its hardware partners -- HP, Dell, Samsung, for example -- to create the PCs, laptops and tablets running its Windows software.

Microsoft might have given an indication that it was thinking about producing its own ARM-based devices two years ago when it signed a licensing agreement enabling it to build processors based on ARM architecture.

The interest that Equanet is seeing already around Windows 8 tablets is impressive and clearly building their own tablets would allow for consistency of experience and performance. Equanet has been fortunate to be running Windows 8 on a number of devices which has showed the operating system is perfectly aligned to the tablet world.

So I guess we will just have to wait and see what Monday brings and if the rumours are true.