http://kara.allthingsd.com/20100106/microsofts-ballmer-will-not-be-showing-slate-pc-at-ces-opening-tonight/

As much as BoomTown likes a good computer tablet face-off, sources with knowledge of the situation said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will not be whipping out the secret “Courier” slate PC that the company has been noodling on in his keynote speech opening the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight. Instead, he will be showing off a new Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) slate that runs Microsoft software.

Last night, the New York Times reported that the software giant would do so in a blog post titled: “Microsoft and H.P. to Reveal Slate PC Ahead of Apple.”

Apple will be launching its much-heralded slate at an event in San Francisco on January 27, as All Things Digital has previously reported.

The Apple (AAPL) device is garnering the expected flood of hype, of course. So, don’t expect Ballmer to pointlessly go against the tide on this particular tsunami, thereby painting its slate efforts as also-ran.

Instead, his speech is more likely to focus on its new Windows 7 operating system, cloud computing, portable and mobile devices and Microsoft’s “software plus services” motto.

While he might talk about a range of products related to Microsoft (MSFT) and there will be multi-form hardware shown, including multi-touch, tablet-type devices, there will be no grand showing of the one called the Courier, which Microsoft is reportedly working on with HP.

Hence the possible confusion over the PC slate.

Now, please go back to gushing over the Apple iSlate ad nauseum!