Steve Ballmer doesn't consider Google's Android a worthy competitor in the burgeoning tablet market.

Speaking with analysts on Thursday about tablets, Ballmer said, "If with the application base, with the tools that we have, with the user understanding and momentum and everything going on, we can't compete with...whatever the weird collection of Android machines is going to look like, shame on us."

He followed that saying, "Apple is Apple. They're always a little tougher to compete with. They're a really good competitor, and tend to be a really high-priced competitor."

Ballmer is right when he says Microsoft should be able to squash Android. Microsoft is a bigger company which has been making an operating system for longer.

He's also right to call Apple a tougher competitor. Apple is better at marketing, it produces a stronger hardware and software package than Google, too.

Yet, dismissing Android is a huge mistake.

Android is a mature, powerful operating system. Google is seeing 160,000 Android-based devices being activated on a daily basis. Talk to an Android user and they'll tell you they love the operating system. If Apple can tweak its iPhone OS to fit onto the iPad, Google can do the same with Android.

What Ballmer doesn't seem to understand with the iPad is that it is not used like a PC. It is a consumption machine. The iPad succeeds because it has a good browser, a good email system, and a few thousand applications built specifically for it.

There's no reason Android couldn't do the same thing. If Google and Apple can produce successful tablets, that's a big threat in the long run to Microsoft's Windows franchise.

Beyond the operating system, Ballmer is foolish to call forthcoming Android machines a "weird collection". Google's hardware partners are the same as Microsoft! Android tablets are being made by Dell, HTC, Asus, etc.

Until there is a beautiful, unique, easy to use tablet running on Windows, Steve Ballmer should be taking the threat from Google and Android just as seriously as he's taking the threat from Apple and the iPad.

See Also: 10 Reasons You Should Love Microsoft