No tablets expected to feature WP7

Microsoft does aspire to one day see tablets running a Windows platform, just not Windows Phone 7. That's disappointing news for those who are fans of a mobile platform that has been lauded as much for its intuitive user interface as it has been criticized for its lack of widespread success.

Yesterday at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference Windows Phone president Andy Lees stated that "We [Microsoft] view the tablet as a PC." While I'm not a tablet user, that does seem kind of backwards to me. I own a PC and if I was interested in purchasing a tablet it would be so that I would own a new device that has a different set of strengths and weaknesses than my regular ol' PC. Imagine if all of those iPad or iPad 2 commercials concluded with "It's basically a Mac."

In any case Microsoft's goal seems to be to wait for Windows 8, an operating system that is going to combine the best of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7. It seems that Windows 8 will be more supportive of touch input and will feature a Start screen with the Metro design rather than a Start menu. Well Windows Phone 7 already has that. So while Microsoft waits for Windows 8 development to finish, tablet manufacturers are turning to Android, webOS or other platforms.

To alleviate the fact that this week has started out on a bum note for WP7 users, this post will end with a good one. A Samsung smartphone running WP7 was recently displayed briefly at the partnership conference (as according to prophecy) much to the surprise of both Samsung and WP7 fans.

While no concrete details about the device -- name, specs -- were readily available it is a safe bet that there will be more of these Samsung Windows handsets to come in the near future.

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Image via UmangDokey