Whichever path Microsoft announces Monday, one thing is for certain. Windows 8 tablets are coming, and they're coming soon. The question is, what will they bring to the party that other comers haven't? And will these tablets be able to mount a credible challenge to Apple's iPad, or the mounds of Android 4.0 tablets?

Here are five things that Microsoft and Windows 8 tablets need to have to make an impact.

Apple and Amazon have excelled in making it dead simple for consumers to shop for their music, videos, and TV shows. Apple makes downloading content for local use as easy as it gets via iTunes, while Amazon makes it easy to download and stream from its cloud services (the Kindle Fire's limited local storage makes it less viable to store your media locally).

Google's Play store lets you shop for music, but it remains a bit awkward. And movies are still merely rentals, not buy-to-own. No TV shows in sight.