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People who are looking forward to a Windows based tablet are somewhat caught between a rock and a hard place. We all agree that Windows 7 is not terribly well suited for a tablet device, however Microsoft has said that Windows Phone 7 and its touch friendly interface will not be going on any tablets. Windows Embedded 7 which is still in development, so what does that leave us?

Thankfully third parties are working to come to our rescue, such as UI Centric. The are working on a Windows 7 touch GUI specially designed for tablets that they are calling Macallan and say that the first tablet from a major manufacturer running Macallan will debut as early as Q3 of this year…that means they have until the end of September.

Macallan is a GUI overlay designed to give Windows 7 a new look and feel optimized for a tablet experience.

We don’t know much as of yet, but the screenshots that UI Centric has released are very Zune-esque with a swipable menu along the left side of the screen, with menu items that apparently link to hubs with grouped applications, similar to WP7. The GUI features what they call a “smart overview” section which is somewhat similar to the home screen of many mobile phone GUIs. There is also a feature that UI Centic calls “acetate peel” in which you peel one window back to reveal part of another to check a detail, or peel it all the way to switch completely. Visually it appears to be very cool, but no way to tell now how much of a drain on performance it will be. As eye candy, it is far more impressive than Aero and could be a lot of fun to work with.

Overall, I think my initial impression is that it seems to be a very Windows Phone flavored tablet experience, with very little resemblance to Android or iOS, which is great.

Look at UI Centric’s press release on their website for more details and check out some screen captures and a short demo video below. They are promising a demo version soon and I for one am very anxious to see it.