* Software company may launch own tablet
* Device likely to be ARM-based
* Xbox, Skype integration expected
LOS ANGELES, June 18 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp
kept quiet on Monday ahead of a mystery announcement amid talk
it plans to launch its own tablet computer to rival Apple Inc’s
massively successful iPad.
The world’s largest software maker is on track to launch its
touch-friendly Windows 8 operating system this autumn and
industry watchers are speculating that Microsoft will make an
own-brand tablet to kickstart demand.
Such a device, likely running on chips designed by ARM
Holdings Plc, could include all kinds of features from
the Microsoft stable, including integration with the top-selling
Xbox game console, Skype video calling and the Office suite of
applications.
Microsoft has long been expected to integrate the Xbox more
tightly with its mainstream software. Earlier this month at the
E3 game show, Microsoft announced “second screen” software
called SmartGlass, which will allow users to beam video from a
tablet to a television and turn the tablet into a controller
showing data on the game or film being screened.
Xbox has been making inroads into the living room recently,
away from its hardcore gamer base. Paying subscribers to Xbox
Live now get access to streaming content from Netflix, ESPN,
HBO, Paramount Pictures, Hulu Plus and others.
Microsoft sent out invitations for the event – to be held at
Milk Studios in Hollywood at 3.30pm (22:30 GMT) – to media and
analysts last week. Since then, it has declined comment.
Communications head Frank Shaw has not gone out of his way to
play down talk of a Microsoft tablet, but has not confirmed it
either.
Earlier in the day, Barnes & Noble Inc ruled out its
involvement in the announcement after speculation it was
building a new Nook electronic book reader with Microsoft, two
months after their April agreement to work together on e-books.
If Microsoft does launch its own tablet, it would be a
departure from its usual focus on software and potentially throw
it into direct competition with its closest hardware partners
such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and
Hewlett-Packard Co.
It is not the first time such talk has surfaced, as
Microsoft looks for a way to make an impact with Windows 8 and
put the best product it can in the market to counter Apple’s
iPad. Sales of tablets are expected to triple in the next two
years, topping 180 million a year in 2013, easily outpacing
growth in traditional PCs.
Apple, which makes both hardware and software for greater
control over the performance of the final product, has
revolutionized mobile markets with its smooth, seamless phones
and tablets. Rival Google Inc may experiment with a
similar approach after buying phone maker Motorola Mobility this
year.
When it has ventured into hardware, Microsoft has a mixed
record.
Apart from keyboards and mice, the Xbox game console was its
first foray into major manufacturing. That is now a successful
business, but only after billions of dollars of investment and
overcoming problems with high rates of faulty units – a problem
which was nicknamed the “red ring of death” by gamers.
The company’s Microsoft-branded Zune music player, a late
rival to Apple’s iPod, was not a success and its unpopular Kin
phone was taken off the market shortly after introduction.
Microsoft has tried hard to generate the type of excitement
Apple gets for its secretive product launches, but usually
disappoints. Talk was rife at the Consumer Electronics Show in
2010 that Microsoft would pre-empt Apple’s iPad with a slate of
its own devising, but it never materialized.
The company killed off a two-screen, slate-style prototype
called Courier later that year, saying the technology might
emerge in another form later on.
