Microsoft Corp. has uploaded two photos (1, 2) of a rather mysterious product to a special Microsoft Hardware album on Twitpic. The world's largest maker of software did not say what it is, but it could either be a slate, phone, mouse/touch pad or a new version of Zune personal digital media player.

The only hint that Microsoft actually revealed about the device is "Don’t be so touchy…flat is where it’s at.” Considering the fact that touch-based input is a very fashionable trend and almost everything can be made flat, the "description" can illustrate almost all types of modern digital devices.

There are a number of things that are likely to be the candidates to be "flat" and emerge from Microsoft:

• A slate-type personal computer/electronic book reader. The move will be rather unexpected, considering the fact that there is no low-power x86 processors for Windows 7 and it is unlikely that the operating system has already been tailored for touch-based input.
• A Windows Phone 7-based phone from Microsoft itself. It would hardly make a lot of sense to release its own-brand phone powered by an operating system that is actually designed for others.
• Anew Zune player. Since Microsoft's music players are not exactly popular, a refresh would make sense.
• A Touch Pad or a new mouse. Possible, but not very likely, given rather strange design.

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Zune, x86