Microsoft CFO Peter Klein, while addressing a Q&A session today, informed attendees that Microsoft is ready to handle tablets of various sizes. “We’ve done a lot of the hard work in the developer platform,” Klein said. “We are well set up to respond to demand as we see it. I think we’re really set up to deliver the most versatile set of experiences across form factors, whether that’s 4-inch, 5-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, 10-inch, 13-inch. And along with our partners in the ecosystem, we’ll work through that based on underlying demand.”At present Windows tablets are coming in the 10-inch category, and moving on to smaller sizes will give Microsoft the opportunity to get back at the competition in the tablet market. Among other things, Klein also mentioned unification of Windows phone 8 and Windows 8. “We are getting closer and closer every day to write once and run anywhere”. This code portability is designed for users who want to share apps on different Microsoft systems. This is also part of the “write once, run anywhere” strategy.
Natively Windows handles a variety much better than iOS, and that’s because Microsoft has a legacy of support a lot of different display types. Apple is using a lot of bitmaps in its user-interface and a jump to a higher resolution has to be done much more carefully to avoid any stretching of the various bitmaps. The end result is that Apple may be forced to use a more expensive display that quadruples the previous resolution, while Microsoft can support displays with 30% or 50% more pixels.