Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has announced that consumers can expect to see a raft of Microsoft tablets and smart devices launched into the Apple-dominated tablet market, a range of products that even the hyperactive CEO described as just “quite impressive”.

Making the keynote speech at the group’s Worldwide Partners Conference in Washington DC, Ballmer said: “Over the course of the next several months, you will see a range of Windows 7-based slates that I think you’ll find quite impressive.”

So, is the world waiting with bated breath, is Apple quaking in its slickly-designed boots, or will Microsoft’s tablet aspirations be swept away by a tidal wave of indifference?

If you pay heed to the comments on blogs such as PC World’s, then the latter scenario is the most likely – the sceptics have share of voice and reactions have been lukewarm at best.

Ballmer told attendees at the conference that Microsoft plans to build the tablets with partners including Dell, Samsung and Toshiba and that pricing would be varied.

That list of partners gives off a smell of a meal created by far too many cooks (unappetising). At a time when almost everyone and their dog is attempting to join the tablet market and get a slice of Apple’s pie, Microsoft needs to come up with something very special indeed; especially given that more established e-book manufacturers are already cutting the prices of their tablets in a desperate bid to grab share back from Apple.

As many commentators argue, Microsoft’s tablet move comes across as merely an attempt to cash in on a market dominated by Apple, a company that is Midas-like in its unrivalled ability to transform so-so concepts (be they MP3 players, smartphones, or tablet computers) into gold.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s performance in the hardware market is hardly a solid foundation. Excepting the hugely successful Xbox, its strength has always been in software – and it has had some pretty poor failures in that market in recent years (Windows Vista, anyone, perhaps tellingly another pale imitation in this instance, of Apple’s OS).

Ballmer’s keynote address was further undermined by the fact that he is repeating himself: Earlier this year, he presented a prototype Slate tablet (a Windows-based Kindle, really) to an underwhelmed audience (see pic). The product was thanks to a partnership with HP, and it has since been scrapped.

HP, of course, has since bought Palm and is planning to make a splash in the tablet market of its own with a product nicknamed Hurricane.

Yesterday’s announcement was scant on detail – Ballmer didn’t even reveal a launch date for the tablets. But what did speak volumes was that his words were like a distorted, echo of those of Apple’s chief  in January, when Steve Jobs described the forthcoming iPad as “a magical, truly revolutionary product”, not as merely “quite impressive”. Ballmer either has a mediocre product launch on his hands, or he needs to fire his speechwriter.