It always seemed a little odd to me that Microsoft was said to be launching new tablets that ran on the same year-old operating system that they use for regular computers. Apparently they’re not. Now the word is that when new Microsoft tablets launch next month at the Consumer Electronics Show, they’ll feature a new Windows OS tailored for mobile. It will run on ARM chips, same kind that are in iPads and lots of smartphones.

One is tempted to be pessimistic about this whole Microsoft tablet enterprise since they’re arriving pretty late to the tablet party and reportedly with something clunkier than the iPad 1 (not to mention the impending iPad 2). But if the new OS runs great and they can deliver a low price point, they have a shot. After all, the video game console business was pretty well established too but that didn’t stop Xbox from being a hit.