Can Microsoft imitate Apple one more time?

Remember back in early June when Steve Ballmer said the Apple iPad was "just another PC"? He'd like to amend that slightly to "just another PC that's now kicking our a**."
In a meeting with analysts yesterday, Ballmer spent a fair amount of time talking about Apple's iPad and trying to explain why there are no Microsoft-based devices that remotely compare to it.

The "blah blah blah" part included a) an admission that the iPad has sold "more than I'd like them to sell," b) "we're coming full guns" to the slate market, and c) they'll be "coming when they're ready" -- so don't bother camping in line outside any Microsoft stores just yet. (Greg Packer, this means you.)

Meanwhile, the one Windows-based slate Ballmer could dig up to demo at last January's CES -- and got virtually heckled off the stage by the blogosphere afterward -- may end up not being a Windows device after all. Now that HP has gobbled up Palm, its Slate PC may run Palm's WebOS, a much more attractive tablet interface than Windows 7. Given how badly HP got jobbed by Microsoft during the whole "Vista ready" labeling debacle, I imagine this would be sweet revenge. LINK