Microsoft tablet has lost nearly half of consumer interest, says Forrester

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has promised a tablet running Microsoft Windows 8 by June 2012. A Forrester report, however, suggests this may be way too late for Microsoft to become a serious competitor in the market.

"Though Microsoft's OEM partners are embracing the platform, consumer interest has plummeted during the past nine months," states a summary of the report.

While a Forrester survey in the first quarter of the year found 46% of consumers to be interested in a tablet running Windows, by the third quarter interest had waned to 25%, analyst JP Gownder, a co-author with Sarah Rotman Epps, blogged yesterday.

Gownder added that, far from competing with the market-leading iPad, a Windows 8 tablet is a "fifth-mover," arriving...

... after [Apple's] iPad, Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, HP’s now-defunct webOS tablet, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. While Windows’ product strategists can learn from these products, other players have come a long way in executing and refining their products — Apple, Samsung and others have already launched second-generation products and will likely be into their third generation by the time Windows 8 launches.

Indeed, executing a winning first-time product while Apple is on its third draft will be no easy feat. But Microsoft has actually proven it's able to pay attention, learn and adjust fast.

New York Times reviewer David Pogue had a laundry list of complaints about the first Windows Phone. But the Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" update, he wrote, is: "gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent. The design is intelligent, clean and uncluttered. Never in a million years," he added, "would you guess that it came from the same company that cooked up the bloated spaghetti that is Windows and Office."

Another encouraging sign for Microsoft is that developers are paying attention. According to IDC and Appcelerator, 38% of the developers who participated in a worldwide survey said they were "very interested" in developing for the Windows Phone OS, largely due to the potential for a tablet running Windows 8 (Unfiltered: Nokia confirms Windows 8 tablet for sprint, developers rejoice).

Still, given the speed with which Amazon is selling Kindle Fire tablets, and Forrester's consumer interest findings, if there was ever a time to get it right on the first try, for Microsoft this is it.