Ashlee Vance, reporting for the New York Times, says that Microsoft and HP are planning to unveil a “slate-type computer” during Steve Ballmer’s keynote at CES this evening. Ashlee Vance’s source said that the device could be available by mid-year.

Everyone has seen Gizmodo’s piece on the Microsoft Courier. Whether this HP-made device is similar, or even the same device, is yet to be known.

If Ballmer actually plans to announce a tablet device less than a month before Apple is rumored to announce a similar device, it better be good.

Who knows, it could be awesome. But, Steve Jobs was right when he said:

Nobody wants a stylus.

Previously:
9/23/09: Microsoft Courier

Update 1/6/10: Kara Swisher reports that Microsoft will certainly not be unveiling the Courier tablet. She says that Microsoft may be working on the Courier with HP but if a tablet is shown it won’t be much different than the tablet devices they’ve shown in the past.

The Ballmer keynote has ended and just as Kara Swisher said, the tablet (or slate as Microsoft is now calling them) was just a boring device running Windows 7. It’s not surprising, I didn’t really expect much innovation from this keynote. And honestly, did anyone else?