Microsoft may recently have scrapped its plans for the Microsoft Courier device, but that doesn’t mean the company is out of the tablet computing game, company chairman, Bill Gates, told FOX.

Microsoft chairman Gates and billionaire investor (and friend of Gates) Warren Buffet were in conversation about the economy, technology, Apple and more.

Gates observes his company doesn’t intend to cede the tablet computing market without a fight, despite the cancellation of Courier, “Microsoft has a lot of different tablet projects that we’re pursuing,” he said. “We think that work with the pen that Microsoft pioneered will become a mainstream for students. It can give you a device that you can not only read, but also create documents at the same time.”

That doesn’t mean Apple hasn’t achieved its own miracles in the landscape, Gates concedes saying, “Yes, I think both in general and in the specific, Apple’s done a great job.”

Buffett agrees, telling Fox, “[Apple CEO] Steve Jobs has done a terrific job. And there will be companies that excel. And occasionally they will excel because of luck, but usually they excel because of brains.”

For the future? Sure we’re in recesson, but, “Innovation is still there and it’s very much a global system. We’re way better off and this is going to be a great time for the country,” Gates promises us all.

Image above via: Gizmodo