Microsoft tablets a 'job one urgency'

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has again insisted that the company is hard at work on Windows 7-based tablets.

Speaking to financial analysts, quote machine Ballmer said that the tablets would ship as soon as they are ready, “It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch."

Referencing Apple’s head start in the tablet market, Ballmer said, "They've sold certainly more than I'd like them to have sold."

Microsoft is known to be working with HP, Asus, Dell, Samsung, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, Pegatron and Sony.

"We're coming," he said. "We're coming full guns. The operating system is called Windows."

At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference last month Ballmer said, “This year one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and Windows 7 phones.