Tami Reller

LAS VEGAS -- Apart from 3D TVs, one of the biggest trends at the Consumer Electronics Show is the surge in computers and devices that are something more than smartphones but less than notebooks. The buzz is particularly intense over touch-enabled slate computers -- fueled by Apple's plans, whatever they may be.

In many ways, we've been here before. Microsoft and computer makers tried -- and failed -- to push slate computing into the mainstream almost a decade ago through the Tablet PC initiative. And they weren't the first. So what's different this time, and what's the potential market? Those are among the questions I asked Tami Reller, Microsoft's Windows marketing and finance chief, in an interview here.

Continue reading for edited excerpts.

Q: One of the interesting trends here is this space between smart phones and netbooks, and it was represented by the new HP slate that Steve Ballmer talked about. How do you view the role of Windows 7 on those slate devices?

Reller: It’s a classic example of taking innovation in Windows 7 and making the most of it in a device, and really saying, what is innovation in touch. The all-in-one did an excellent job with touch. Now we’re seeing the slates. It has the same technology as a netbook, and the things that we found with netbooks, which is, it’s a good companion, and it tended to be a good companion on the road. How do we bring an entertainment netbook and really take advantage of touch? that’s what we think the slate has the potential to do. Terrific companion device.

Q: How big is the market for devices like that, the ‘entertainment netbook’?

Reller: It’s early to tell. But the beauty of it is it does multiple entertainment things. It’s certainly not just good in home. It will be good for travel. I think it’s a reasonably interesting category. Clearly a companion category, and I think that’s what’s important.

Q: So it’s not going to replace somebody’s notebook, probably not their desktop computer, probably not their smartphone. So at some point you say, OK, how many of these things are we going to be carrying around?

Reller: Clearly PCs are being viewed now as entertainment rich. So if I’m going to have a companion device, then let’s make sure it can do as many entertainment things for me as possible, so I can have less of them. I think that’s the key — how many of my entertainment scenarios will this device cover for me. Then it’s interesting. But it’s clearly early days.

Q: Did you feel that you needed to blunt whatever Apple might be coming out with later this month by touting the HP slate?

Reller: The HP slate has been an important conversation for us with HP for some time. I’ll just go back to the whole Windows 7 planning process. There has been regular, consistent, often, senior and detailed technical conversations on this wide range of devices. So it was just a very natural process. It’s always interesting to make competitive fodder of these things, but that’s clearly overblown.

Q: So are you not worried about anything Apple may be coming out with later this month?

Reller: Listen, Apple is always an interesting competitor to us.

Q: Are there differences between this slate market that we’re looking at now and the Tablet PC market that was going on back in 2002?

Reller: There’s certainly similarities, but it is such a different world, in terms of the range of devices, range of capabilities, and the sheer design. Most important is the Windows 7 touch technology brings a level of innovation that lets partners do much more interesting things. Not just on the hardware side but on the application side. It’s education, it’s commercial uses, it’s some very interesting consumer applications.

That’s the story of Windows, which is if the ecosystem can do interesting things, that’s when adoption happens. These devices become interesting when you can use them for more and more things. Using them for more and more things means that the ecosystem is rich and doing interesting things.

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