"They've sold certainly more (iPads) than I'd like them to have sold" - Ballmer

That somewhat pithy statement above is one of the tidbits gleaned at a daylong Microsoft meeting with analysts on Thursday. After all, in the battle of the Steves and tablet PCs, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows he is way behind, and he's not happy. Deapite this, speaking at a daylong Microsoft meeting with analysts on Thursday, Ballmer assured them that Microsoft is hard at work on an iPad rival.

It's not as though Microsoft didn't have their chance at a tablet PC before. The were foreseen long ago, and delivered, but fell short of expectations and were never successful. One challenge for Microsoft that Apple does not have is that (in general) Microsoft must rely on hardware manufacturers to deliver a product using the software Microsoft provides, as opposed to developing and manufacturing the whole device themselves.

Another challenge is squeezing and modifying a desktop OS onto a tablet PC. One can only say, in highsight, that once iOS was developed and deliivered on a touchscreen smartphone, it was obvious it would come to a tablet someday.

In terms of Windows 7-based tablets, Ballmer said, somewhat echoing Apple's stance on delivering good products when they are ready, "They'll be shipping as soon as they are ready. It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch." The goal is "not just to deliver products, but to deliver products that people want to buy."

He also added the following pithy comments, that Apple had "done an interesting job" with the iPad, and that "they've sold certainly more than I'd like them to have sold."

Ballmer also noted something interesting to his session. He added that Microsoft has to be involved somewhere in the hardware design process. He reiterated that in the Q&A session, sayin that Microsoft will design hardware when it needs to as necessary to compete.

That follows closely an earlier article at Ars in which it was posited that Microsoft should cut out the middleman and design and build its own smartphone hardware as well as software.

It's been said that this is why the iPhone is so successfuly: direct control by Apple over the hardware and software design of the product. Microsoft's most successful hardware product to date, the XBox 360, is a prime example of what can happen when Microsoft designs and builds both (although some would point to the "red ring of death" as a counterpoint).

The full transcript of Ballmer's session can be downloaded here.