Microsoft: ‘You’ll see slates with Windows on them, you’ll see them this Christmas’

Speaking at the London School of Economics, Microsoft’s excitable and rather shouty chief executive Steve Ballmer has claimed that tablets running Windows will be out this Christmas.

“We as a company will need to cover all form factors,” says Ballmer. “We have done work around the tablet as a productivity device and a consumption device”.

While other manufacturers use more mobile focused operating systems from tablets - including iOS and Android - Microsoft is sticking with Windows.

“You’ll see them continue to change and evolve” says Ballmer. But his current target is to “get back seriously into the game of phones,” with the launch of Windows Phone 7 later this year.

But while the CE was pimping Windows Phone 7, he admitted that he’s more excited about the technology and ideas behind Xbox 360’s body-sensing Kinect, out this October.