Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will not be introducing the "Courier" slate PC the company began demonstrating in September of 2009 at this evening's CES keynote event, but he will be showing an HP tablet device running some version of Windows.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD, speculation that tonight's keynote would be about a Microsoft branded tablet developed with HP is not accurate, and that the tablet that will be shown is merely one product of many that Mr. Ballmer will discuss.

The publication also said that Mr. Ballmer will discuss Windows 7, cloud computing, portable and mobile devices, and Microsoft's "software plus services" motto.

News broke early Wednesday morning that Microsoft would be unveilving a new tablet device developed with HP, and the immediate supposition was that it would be the Courier book/slate that Big Redmond has been developing.

We've no doubt it will be gripping stuff, which is why The Mac Observer has boots on the ground in Las Vegas, and we will be covering the event both in our news coverage and through our MacObserverLive Twitter account.