Royally trumped in the tablet business that it couldn't get off the ground - while Apple made it look easy - Microsoft is promising to return in force underneath the slates that 21 companies are supposed to put out within the year to dip their bread in the bubbling Apple-made gravy.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that companies like Asus, Acer, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Panasonic and Sony - even HP despite its current infatuation with Palm's WebOS - will be coming out with Windows 7-based tablets.

"This year one of the most important things we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and Windows 7 phones," he said. This is a terribly important area for us. We are hardcore about this."

The widgets, meant for the enterprise as well as the consumer, will come in various form factors with and without keyboards and with and without docking stations, all at various price points and all will run Windows apps like Office.

Ballmer said the "cloud wants smarter devices."