HP takes chisel in hand, mulls over Android and Linux slates
By Sean Hollister 
posted April 22nd 2010 9:09AM
posted April 22nd 2010 9:09AM
posted April 22nd 2010 9:09AM
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Only in a photoshopped image can these 3 get so close! :)
@who said what : LOL.
@who said what
What about if you were looking at a google of penguin eating a google of Big Mac through a Windows?
@Outsider and an Apple for desert?
@mrpixel oops..dessert..too much wine. :D
@mrpixel Think the Big Mac was the reference to Apple, but yeah, I guess Apple was the more obvious one.
@Outsider haha..blaming on the wine.
@mrpixel blame it on the trone
@who said what It may lack some physical feature, but that kind of screen deserves some loving. Maybe it's still just a prototype and will be improved before the official release.. http://j.mp/hp-slate-experience
@who said what Actually once, I had a VE running a instance of Linux(I forget what distro) and Firefox opened to Google in Windows with the Start Menu opened... I got pretty close... I guess.
So I guess Windows 7 wasn't that good for a tablet, lol.
@Kwame Nkrumah Windows 7 kicks ass for a tablet, you just experienced a circle of iPad fanbois like yourself holding hands singing in chorus.
@Ducman69 .. Every Windows 7 tablet we have seen either has terrible battery life or is basically a laptop with a touchscreen.
If you can show us a Windows 7 tablet that is iPad sized and has 10 hours battery life then we will believe you.
@taligent The iPad is a crippled cellphone with a huge screen. And no, it is not a laptop with a touchscreen, it is a netbook with a touchscreen.
Are you going to imply that netbooks running Windows 7 have not been a sales success? Are you going to pretend that Windows 7 doesn't have extensive touch optimizations?
If you want a cellphone with a bigger screen, get a Dell Mini 5, at least it can still make calls and fit in your pocket. :)
@Ducman69
At least there's enough 'iPad fanbois' that actually own the thing to make a circle holding hands and singing in chorus. Looking at the fabulous failures of literally every Windows tablet in history, it remains to be seen more than 2 people will actually buy the HP slate.
@drange How many netbook based Windows 7 tablets do you have experience with?
Its using netbook class hardware, minus the keyboard, plus a touchscreen. Netbook sales have nearly doubled every single year since 2007, and are booming in Asia right now.
iPad sales are in the hundreds of thousands, netbook sales and computers running Windows 7 are in the hundreds of millions. I think that qualifies as a sales success. ;)
@Ducman69 Just curious do who have a Windows 7 Tablet?
@Ducman69 .. Why don't you stop moving the goalposts ? This has nothing to do with netbooks. Yes they are successful. Of course they are.
We are talking about TABLETS. Show me a tablet running Windows 7 that has decent battery life and is iPad sized i.e. thin. The HP Slate is thicker, smaller/crappier screen and only has around 5 hours battery life.
@mrpixel No, but I have a HP tablet and a Dell netbook both running Windows 7.
Combining the two is not a big stretch of the imagination. ;)
@taligent
Whatever happened to productivity in this world? What will a gimped OS do to productivity? Who spends 10 hours on a device in a single day? What will a lightweight OS do that a full OS cant do?
@Ducman69
We are talking about tablets, not netbooks. Netbooks are crappy cheap laptops. Get it straight.
@taligent My girlfriends 50cc scooter also gets better fuel economy than my 650cc Suzuki. The iPad gets superior battery life to a HP Slates because the iPad is running crippled cellphone (iPhone) hardware, the Slate is a netbook with a touchscreen.
5hrs life on netbook hardware is considered excellent, the average is 4hrs for flush-fit batteries.
And just like the motorcycle to scooter comparison, you use more fuel but you also have a far more robust and capable machine. Enjoy your scooter.
@eminisp
Look at the fanboys making excuses, so we should excuse Windows tablets for having pathetic battery lifes. I mean companies should stop start decreasing battery life, afterall who spends 8 hours on a laptop in a day, or 10 hours. We should be going down to 2 hour battery life.
@Ducman69
Kicks what ass? Windows 7 on tablets will fail as hard as the other windows based tablets have for the last 10 years.
@taligent
Don't mind them, no wonder HP is looking to other solutions. No one wants to be loaded a bloated OS on tablets which need lean operating systems to run effieciently.
@Kwame Nkrumah Yes, netbook based hardware running Windows 7 will fail so hard.
Oh wait, its the number one growing computing segment with hundreds of millions of units sold. Oops!
Windows 7 however was not designed to run on cellphone based hardware, and for that, there are a myriad of options from the Windows CE based WM7 to google to linux.
@Kwame Nkrumah
dear god you have no life look how many times you posted within a 3 minute time fram
@Kwame Nkrumah
dear god you have no life look how many times you posted within a 3 minute time frame
@Ducman69
We are talking about tablets and not netbooks. Netbooks have not sold anywhere close to a hundred million.
@Ducman69 That's what I meant, a tablet running Windows 7. I ask, cause the things that's scratching my head are: how is the performance? and whether you have trouble touching small icons? If battery life is greater than 4 hours for a full fledged OS, I say that's highly acceptable.
@Ducman69
I recommend you stop cause no one Apple associated can understand why we prefer Windows over OSX. They prefer a gimped OS than a full one. I need a swiss knife to take to work not a butter knife. I need a couple of hours to do my work not 10. Question: Who the hell spends 10 hours on their iPad?
@Kwame Nkrumah LOL! You just embarrassed yourself again. 187 million netbooks sold as of the beginning of this year. By the end of the year, projections show sales should slow a bit to reach 210 million.
http://iipalbanjary.net/netbook-sales-growth-revenue/
Owned. :D
@eminisp
Yeah your reasoning is why Windows tablets have been a failure for the past 10 years.
@Kwame Nkrumah
you are pathetic you have posted 12 times on this post and their are only 53 post. that means you make up more than 1/5 of the posts
@Ducman69 Name one good windows 7 tablet. A netbook is 'exactly' a notebook. Same form factor and everything else...
Windows 7 is a poor platform for tablets.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Look at this guy.
He said the following.
"I mean companies should stop start decreasing battery life, afterall who spends 8 hours on a laptop in a day, or 10 hours. We should be going down to 2 hour battery life."
huh? I day trade for a living. Can you imagine the kind of results i would get trading off a iPad? oh i forgot, i cant. Zen-fire/ninja trader doesnt work with the iphone os my friend. You see those hand held devices at the Nasdaq? Yea those, held by the daytraders. I wonder what os is in those devices?
Can you imagine your retirement/SIP/401 trading from the iPad? Wall Street controls your financial well being. Were not using Apple, were all windows.
@Ducman69
Where in there does it say netbooks have sold anywhere close to 200 million. Do some of you think before you write. From your link it shows that in 2009 netbooks accounted for 11 percent of the PC market. Netbooks were introduced in 2007, so if they have supposedly sold 200 million, it means they have sales of around like let's say 65 million a year. So if they have sales of 65 million a year, would it mean that PC sales in total is close to 650 million a year, heck no, so you are wrong. Stop talking out of your ass.
@Kwame Nkrumah I wouldn't say its a failure. HP are placing different devices for different market segments. For example:
- Full Creativity and full media consumption -> Windows 7 -> 4+ battery life
- Semi creativity and full media consumption - > Android -> 6-8 hrs nattery life.
- Semi creativity and media consumption (no Flash) -> iPad - >10+ hrs battery life.
The first 2 have more freedom, but can be crippled because of fragmentation.
@Ducman69
Where in there does it say netbooks have sold anywhere close to 200 million. Do some of you think before you write. From your link it shows that in 2009 netbooks accounted for 11 percent of the PC market. Netbooks were introduced in 2007, so if they have supposedly sold 200 million, it means they have sales of around like let's say 65 million a year. So if they have sales of 65 million a year, would it mean that PC sales in total is close to 650 million a year, heck no, so you are wrong. Stop talking out of your ass.
@Kwame Nkrumah
"Yeah your reasoning is why Windows tablets have been a failure for the past 10 years."
Now I know im talking to a idiot. Now i know why the battery is 10 hours. Thanks for clearing that up. *closes the door*
@eminisp
This has nothing to do with an ipad genius. You claimed the ipad's 10 hour battery life is irrelevant and that no one should use it for that long. I guess companies should start decreasing battery life according to your wise logic.
@eminisp
That's hilarious, calling OS X crippled and limited compared to Windows. Last time I checked OS X is usable and complete the minute you boot it for the first time, while with Windows you'll be installing 20 different 3rd-party tools before you can even start thinking about using the damn computer.
Maybe, you could be so kind to name one (1) single thing that makes OS X more limited or crippled than Windows for any task you can think of, as long as you don't come up with 'uhuhuh running a Windows game' or something similar.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Why cant i get an answer from you or anyone about the 10 hours of productivity? My "logic" still stands. Answer the question and we'll leave it that.
@Kwame Nkrumah
HP also wants to cut the costs of licensing W7. When the iPad was introduced at a price $300 lower than anyone expected, it sent Slate (and everyone else's) engineers back to the drawing boards. If they ditch W7 and intel, HP could easily shave about $100 off the unit production cost. That's $200-$250 at retail.
@eminisp
I will when you tell me why less battery life is better!
Dear Engadget Editor,
This particular thread has become blown out of proportion.
Clearly, the Kwame whatever guy should be banned for his inappropriate language rather than an effort to intelligently contribute to this site.
@eminisp
And before you answer that one, let me list a few examples that show the exact opposite: full BSD environment, X-Windows, full development toolchain, full Apache webserver, SSH/SMB/AFS connectivity, full photo and music management software, integrated PDF reader, no need to install additional security software, full backup suite that even your grandma can use, full scripting capabilities, powerful terminal and shell, no additional drivers required, .... Do I have to continue?
@drange
iPad (iphone os)
HP slate (Windows 7)
Ninja trader genius. Damn, that had to hurt.
Thank you sir.
*closes door*
Already you all forgot that there is a difference between the tablets you're comparing. All those tablets of yesteryear were mainly for productivity (tablet convertibles ya know?), not light browsing and playing games. They were not for media consumption, they were meant for creation
These tablets made by HP, as well as the Looking Glass, many Archos devices and Streak, are the ones you should be comparing to the iPad. Those devices are in the same category, bar none.
But for the sake of arguing, you throw the TC1100, tx2 in the mix simply because they are touchscreen. 2+2 does not = 5 ameegos.
If you're gonna run Windows for a tablet, you're gonna do it mainly for work, not play. There are tablets that can have good specs for running good games, but trust me, that ain't the real reason you'd buy one.
But hey, I'm just throwing this out there, again. So continue with your flamewar.
@Outsider
i agree there is a report button up top to the right of his post i suggest everyone use it
@Kwame Nkrumah
when you begin to act like a elder than i will show respect