Microsoft announced, during the Worldwide Partner Conference, that there will not be any Windows Phone 7 Mango based tablets. Microsoft justified its stance by saying that tablets are more of a PC than a phone.
“A lot of people have asked me, are we going to produce a phone that is a tablet? Well, that is in conflict with this strategy. We view a tablet as a sort of PC. We want people to be able to do the sorts of things that they expect on a PC on a tablet,” said Andy Lees, President of Windows Phone.
From what Lees is saying, we will be seeing a unified ecosystem that brings all our devices together. “We won’t have an ecosystem for PCs, and an ecosystem for phones, one for tablets. They’ll all come together,” Lees stated.
Lees also denied that a tablet would replace a PC. “It’s additive. And that’s why our strategy is that these new form factors are within a single ecosystem and not new ecosystems themselves. Windows has always spanned different PC form factors. And with Windows 8 we’re going to take this to a whole new level including tablets.”
Lees promised that we would receive more details on how Microsoft will be providing consumers the “best of the PC and the tablet” at this years upcoming BUILD developer conference, which takes place in September.