According to All Things D Microsoft Is Doing Its Own Tablet:
The company isn’t talking about its effort, but Microsoft has scheduled an event Monday in Los Angeles, where it has promised a “major” announcement. AllThingsD reported earlier on Thursday that the event would center around Microsoft’s tablet strategy.
Makes sense being that their next OS is going to be distinctly targeted at tablets, and previous tablet hardware efforts by their hardware partners (correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that MS has produced tablet hardware in house before) haven’t done well.
I suppose they’re taking something from the Apple philosophy of controlling both hardware and software for a better user experience. I wonder what other hardware partners will think of this though? Though if you remember the HP Windows 7 tablet debacle, this is a good move (assuming they can pull off the hardware production).