Rumors about Microsoft developing a tablet PC, all the better to compete with Apple's much-speculated-about multitouch offering, gained a new head of steam in the blogosphere over the weekend of Sept. 19.

(At some point, I would really like to see a research company drill into whether there's actually been a massive uptick of consumer and enterprise demand for an exclusively touch-screen PC; certain industries use them, granted, but when was the last time you heard someone opine, "Gee, I really wish I could sort through my files using just my pinkie"?)

Microsoft and rumors of tablet PCs, of course, are nothing new. Back in August, I wrote about the whispers, first reported in Wired, that Dell and Intel were collaborating on a touch-screen tablet due for release at some point in 2010. At the time, I contributed to the chatter by postulating that Microsoft would want a piece of that potential touch-screen market, predicted by research company DisplaySearch to expand from its current $3.6 billion to $9 billion over the next six years; and that certain innovations in the upcoming Windows 7, specifically its multitouch capabilities, seemed positioned to take advantage of future tablet PCs from OEMs.

These new rumors, though, present Microsoft as being not just an operating-system provider with regard to a tablet PC, but also as potentially involved in the hardware side of things. This isn't necessarily an outlandish proposition for Redmond, but Microsoft has had mixed results in the "Let's do hardware" arena -- the Xbox was a hit, the Zune has so far been a miss. While Microsoft could beat a hasty retreat from the portable-media-player arena if the Zune HD crashes and burns, the continued success of its Xbox division could also very well convince the company there's a play in hardware if the right opportunity comes along.

That opportunity could very well be a tablet PC. As a number of bloggers pointed out, this job posting for a senior program manager is currently making its way around zee Internets. The full job description name-drops Surface, Microsoft's multitouch offering that rolled out in 2008, as well as the Xbox and the Zune HD -- suggesting some sort of commercial nexus between those projects.

Redmond has been mulling the commercial potential of a touch-screen device for some time. In October 2008, Microsoft issued a survey asking respondents if they would be willing to pay $1,500 for the consumer equivalent of the Surface -- a price-point, it needs to be said, far above the $600 or so currently being postulated for the long-rumored Apple tablet.

Despite the rumors and fervor over tablet PCs from Apple and (to a lesser extent) Microsoft, it's still anyone's guess as to what these devices will be fully capable of, much less more mundane details such as price points or battery life. Until that date, it remains to be seen if various bloggers and analysts are putting the puzzle pieces together in the right way.

Speaking of puzzles and hardware: Also over the weekend, renewed rumors erupted that Microsoft has been busily developing up to two new branded smartphones, which would make their debut sometime in 2010. The two slider phones, allegedly code-named Turtle and Pure, would position Microsoft more competitively against Apple, Palm and Research In Motion's BlackBerry line in the mobile space.

This scuttlebutt, which can be found on sites such as Engadget and 9to5 Mac, suggests that the smartphones are being developed alongside personnel from Danger (which was acquired by Microsoft early in 2009) and will be eventually manufactured by Sharp. Still other rumors narrow down the possible offerings to one smartphone, which will run Windows Mobile 7, the next-generation operating system that will (rumor again has it) make its debut in late 2010.

Regarding tablet and smartphone, Microsoft expressed through a spokesperson that it "does not comment on rumor or speculation."