'iPad' Running Microsoft Windows

A sample of a shanzhai or imitated reproduction of iPad running Microsoft Windows is seen inside a computer shopping mall in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen April 21, 2010. Hefty and thickset with three USB ports and a more rectangular shape than the original, this knock-off with iPad aspirations, which runs a Windows operating system, looks more like a giant iPhone.

A sample of a shanzhai or imitated reproduction of iPad running Microsoft Windows is seen inside a computer shopping mall in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen April 21, 2010. Hefty and thickset with three USB ports and a more rectangular shape than the original, this knock-off with iPad aspirations, which runs a Windows operating system, looks more like a giant iPhone. It costs 2,800 yuan ($410), making it slightly cheaper than the iPad's $499-$699 price tag. Just three weeks after the global launch, bootleg versions of Apple Inc's hot-selling iPad tablet PCs have begun showing up on the shelves of online and real-world shops in piracy-prone China.

It costs $410, making it slightly cheaper than the iPad's $499-$699 price tag. Just three weeks after the global launch, bootleg versions of Apple Inc's hot-selling iPad tablet PCs have begun showing up on the shelves of online and real-world shops in piracy-prone China.

HP's Palm Plans May Leave Microsoft

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer brandished a prototype Windows tablet computer made by the company's largest hardware partner, Hewlett-Packard. The device, among a group of "slate PCs" Ballmer showed, would be "almost as portable as a phone" and "as powerful as a PC," he said.

HP has said it wants to make Palm's WebOS, which has been praised for its intuitive user interface and ability to run several applications simultaneously, the basis for a new generation of smartphones and tablet computers that would compete with Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPad, as well as smartphones from Research In Motion (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK).

HP's acquisition of Palm is the latest speed bump in the complicated relationship between Microsoft, the No. 1 PC software maker, and HP, the world's largest computer maker. HP has developed its own user interface technology for desktops and laptops that run Windows, in a bid to make computers easier for consumers to navigate. Now it's poised to pursue its own direction in the smartphone and tablet markets at a time when Microsoft is trying to gain share in the growing categories.