Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Microsoft is pushing hard to build a device to compete with Apple's iPad.

Ballmer said Microsoft and hardware makers are working on slate devices and said, "It is job one urgency around here. No one is asleep at the switch."

He didn't have any details such as a date when they would be ready, but that a new chip from Intel would come out in the fall that will make a big difference. "All of us have to push partners. They’ll be shipping as soon as they’re ready."

Microsoft has been putting Windows on touch-screen tablet PCs that use a stylus for several years, but they have not gained the critical mass since the iPad came out in April. Apple has sold 3.27 million iPads.

"They’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to sell," Ballmer said.

Here are some more of Ballmer's thoughts on Microsoft's efforst on slates:

"We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to make things happen on Windows 7 and slates. We’re working with our hardware partners, we’re tuning Windows 7 to work on slates. We’ve got the [application] base, we’ve got the user familiarity. We’ve got everything on our side if we do things really right."

He hinted that some previous hardware makers may not end up making Windows-based slate devices. Many have speculated that H-P, which Microsoft said would make a Windows slate in January, will pull out since it acquired Palm. "There’s been a lot of action," he said. "Some ... we’ve talked about in the past which may or may not ship."