Sure, they could put ANOTHER layer on [already unstable] Windows.  They can create ANOTHER “new Windows” …and they’ll get it [tolerably] right the second time around (Microsoft has NEVER gotten a first-release Windows right – Windows 95… Windows Vista… this attempts to be even more ambitious, doing things Windows was never built to do.  By putting a Halloween costume on it. I mean, skin.  I mean, interface.

And why? The public has exploded with approval and support- and is already voting loudly with their wallets – that they want a tablet with a mobile OS on it.  Simplified, for casual use.  For them.  Easy, faultlessly reliable. Minimal configurations, “just works”, doesn’t bluescreen, break, crash, slow over time, etc, etc, etc.  Windows Phone 7 would be (could be) Microsoft’s own product to pitch as an “escape from Windows”… the very reason people are lining up to buy millions of iPads, where Microsoft hasn’t sold a million over ten years of history of “Windows on a tablet”.

Windows Phone 7 as a tablet strategy?  Brilliant.  It would give even more reason to develop Windows Phone 7 into a world class operating system, rather than just being “Hey, we got this thing… for phones… we update it occasionally…” So sad!!

Yes PLEASE, Microsoft, stop with the stupidity…
Please DO use this operating system, that user Yetter has admitted is “the most reliable and intuitive OS yet, built from the ground up [for touchscreens].  It’s a living testament to my point-
Please, don’t try to do “Windows on a tablet”… again.

1) An immature product – like Windows in the 3.1 days, running as a layer, over DOS.

2) Additional complexity, a symptom of trying to do everything (now adding ‘tablet’ to the list), and not yet being able to fully, integrally integrate them all together.

Then, adding a layer but suppressing access to the lower layers is going to inherently be even more of an exercise in frustration when things (in Microsoft tradition, particularly in 1st-gen products) don’t work right 100% of the time. If you don’t have that, then even Windows-saavy won’t have a means to troubleshoot the problem… Or at least won’t know how to.

Then there’s the issue of cost. Android and iOS are free. For all the headaches (and offsetting benefits are…?), Microsoft currently charges $200-$300 for Windows. Maybe only $99 to system builders and OEMs, but it puts another hurdle in the path of competing with iPad, which has inherently low production costs due to sales volumes Windows tablet manufacturers can’t even dream of. That makes it tough to produce competitive hardware, and it’s been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that unless you price lower than ipad (not “same as”, not “except for that entry level one”, not “but ours has ____ better, really”), you won’t sell.

Nothing wrong with optimism, but the market, and success, depend on reality.

The reason Apple was able to succeed where others failed was simplicity. Reliability. Intuitive ease of use. Exactly the things Microsoft has never mastered, with their “try to do everything” os.

The reason the ipad became so popular to begin with is the only difference between it and the 10 years of failed tablets that came before it. iOS, where those tablets had Windows. And the success would only be possible if iOS represented an escape from Windows, something to appeal to the same public that has rejected “Windows on a tablet” for years.

Only with wild success comes a perception of trendiness to help perpetuate that success. Apple is certainly in that position, but they couldn’t be without success. Cause and effect. The horse pulls the cart, not the other way around.

This is ANOTHER layer on top of Windows.
This isn’t simplified, it’s an additional layer of obfuscation – in the name of trying to simplify the UI.
If things go wrong now, it’s another layer to try to navigate through, to try to get to whatever setting that you may or may not be aware of.  How many times have you been frustrated by the tools that Windows has evolved in, that change what you knew about prior Windows versions, or ended up in some Wizard “damnit, this wasn’t what I wanted…” – often multiple times.

By contrast, iOS is lean – there are no layers, it is what it is. If there’s a setting, you can get to it easily.  And iOS inherently minimizes the number of settings available to end users (which happens to be a reason I’m personally iOpposed).

Home users, the laymen (hell, even me) just want to use their computer.  Turn it on, and it works.  Even Windows Update prompting you “Rebooting automatically in…” messages are cause for frustration – particularly if you walked away from  your computer for a while.  Bye bye, whatever you were working on.  How often has that happened to someone using an iPad? Never.
People buy iDevices because it’s simplified – user experience is the priority.
MS can say that’s the case with Windows 8, and show all the optimized videos showing how it’s *supposed* to work… when things are working.  But hey, every version of Windows is a pleasant experience when you don’t need to dig under the covers, when things are working as expected.
It’s the frequency of (and what you need to do) when things aren’t that’s an issue.

Frankly, 6 months ago I was worried for Dell, but with HP fumbling, I am not longer concerned. They are the big boy on the block again if they play their cards right.

iPad appeal is not at all about a “vacation from Windows”, but a fad and a popular icon. Just wait until next year when Windows 8 and see how the trend will change. As an example, cell phones are being replaced by Smartphones so people want their devices to do more and not less.

I will say that Apple devices have superior design and probably will for some time yet, but for many of us, function trumps form.

I’m guessing you’ve either never used Windows Phone 7 or haven’t watched the Windows 8 preview videos.

But – this is a niche device.  I think it has appeal.
I’m a PC user, the guy in the family everyone comes to for tech support because THEY don’t understand computers, conifguration, and all the complexity – that often I share their frustration with.

What’s going to happen to Microsoft when I believe the inevitable happens?
[Another] Windows-on-a-tablet will fail, as it has for 10 years.  Why do I say this when Windows 8 looks so good and tablet-friendly?

The iPad is successful not only because it’s a light, portable, mind-blowingly powerful magical-like tablet to the layman – but because it’s “anti-Windows”… it does away with the confusion and frustration of Windows.

The iPad is successful because people view it not only as portable and impressive, but because the buyers are layman, who don’t need to do more than it’s limited capabilities can accomplish.  Web access, organize myself maybe, and fun and games.  An escape – nay, a vacation from Windows.

Why would any of those people be swayed to purchase Windows on a tablet?
Because even me – it’s this flippy form factor that looks attractive.  The prospect of Windows on a tablet, with its frequent headaches, is a check in the negative column, not positive.
Not for a tablet.