This would be an about-face from the software company's longstanding policy against competing with its hardware partners. Microsoft nurtured its hardware agnostic practice while building Windows from an idea to the dominant software platform.

But today's tech world is very different from the one Microsoft helped to shape with its birth 37 years ago. The company built its model on distributing its PC operating system, the precursor to the Windows (itself now nearly 30), to third-party computer manufacturers. Things change, though, as in the past decade shows. And if Microsoft's Windows operating system is to stay relevant in an increasingly integrated, mobile world, the company needs to offer its own hardware. That's the expectation for Microsoft's

A Microsoft-made tablet makes sense on multiple levels. Apple's marriage between hardware and software is often credited with helping the company succeed where others, like the cacophony of Google Android tablets, have in the  And Apple's complete command over its ecosystem -- both hardware components and operating system -- in turn led to more favorable conditions for developers, who don't have to develop for a seemingly infinite set of variations.

Meanwhile, all signs point to of Nexus-branded  Android 4.0 tablets at the Google IO conference later this month. And even Amazon, with its custom version of Android, has a family of Kindle tablets under its own name.

Lacking hardware, Microsoft is the only operating system maker without an integrated tablet offering of its own. But there's no reason the company couldn't go for it: Add in its own content stores, for acquiring apps, movies, and music, and Microsoft has a solid recipe to compete head-to-head against Apple -- and against Amazon and Google for that matter.