Maybe you should keep reading as you've completely misinterpreted the sentence. The author is stating the Microsoft has spent a long time trying to make a table

Maybe you should keep reading as you've completely misinterpreted the sentence. The author is stating the Microsoft has spent a long time trying to make a tablet by building software and leaving the hardware to others while Apple builds both the software and the hardware. Then the author states that maybe Microsoft is realizing they should build the hardware too.