Microsoft is set to make a big announcement Monday. In an invite sent to press last week, the company promised it was an event we “will not want to miss.”  What Microsoft will announce is anyone’s guess. The latest rumors suggest, however, that the company will unveil the first product it has developed in partnership with Barnes & Noble.  The two companies formed a “strategic partnership” in April, uniting Barnes & Noble’s digital business with $300 million in investment with Microsoft. The new, jointly backed company has not yet been given a name.  “Our complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices, enabling people to not just read stories, but to be part of them,” Andy Lees, president at Microsoft, said in a statement released at the time. Lees was formerly the head of Windows Phone for Microsoft. He was moved late last year to the Barnes & Noble project, according to The Verge.  CEO Steve Ballmer called Lees’s move a “time-critical opportunity” in an internal memo sent at the time, one that would “maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8.”  Earlier this month, Microsoft showed off a new technology called SmartGlass which allows users to push content from their televisions to their phones or tablets, and visa versa. SmartGlass could also play a role in the announcement, perhaps bringing Xbox live-streaming capabilities to the device. An Xbox-related announcement would help explain Microsoft’s decision to hold the event in LA, the home of many entertainment studios.  Either way, we’ll know what Microsoft has in store shortly after its press event begins at 3:30 PT Monday. Join us — we’ll be there blogging all the action live.
Microsoft is hosting an event in Los Angeles on Monday. The tech media speculates on what the company could be planning on announcing. Could it be a tablet? More on SmartGlass? What do you think?