The big question is whether there's more similarity (today) between tablet and laptop than tablet and phone. Microsoft has bet on the tablet-laptop combo while

The big question is whether there's more similarity (today) between tablet and laptop than tablet and phone. Microsoft has bet on the tablet-laptop combo while Apple and Android have taken the tablet-phone route. If Apple does indeed release a 7" iPad then this further cements the tablet-phone approach. Microsoft will have difficulties competing here immediately because Win8's UI is not made to scale down that small and it would be awkward to release 7" devices running WP8 (2 different tablet OSes!). Most people agree that there needs to be more continuity between desktop and mobile and Microsoft is setting themselves up decently with Windows Phone 8 (based on the Win8 core and WinRT). My concern with Windows 8 is that it took a cheap route to extend to tablet UIs (the second shell, Metro), resulting in 3 UI platforms- desktop (classic shell), tablet (Metro), phone (WP8), rather than 2.