We've sensed that
something's been up with the
HP Slate for a while now, and it looks like we've finally gotten the first solid confirmation that the Windows 7 tablet as
unveiled by Steve Ballmer at CES in January won't hit the consumer market as planned -- speaking at the
Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, HP Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley just said that the Slate will be "more customer-specific than broadly deployed," and that it would launch the Microsoft-based tablet "for the enterprise" in the fall. That fits right in with HP telling us the other day that it was in "customer evaluations" as it
prepared for the "next steps," and based on followup comments from Bradley and Palm head Jon Rubinstein, it certainly sounded like the company will focus Windows tablets at the enterprise and develop a variety of webOS devices for the consumer market. Of course, there's no official announcement yet, so we'll see what happens -- the only thing that we can confidently say is that the HP Slate has definitely succeeded the iPad as the tech industry's
favorite vaporware tablet.
posted July 22nd 2010 5:45PM
Excuse me?
@rmbrown09
I concur, I as a consumer would love to have the enterprise features on my consumer tablet, not some "dumbed down" OS with restricted functionality.
Ok thats it, i'm going out and getting those torches and bunch of angry people cause destruction of such is no more, screw you HP!
i had dreams of the slate
@Zylam
2 days ago when the news came out that the slate was still alive, most people here were hyped about it. And I said i wouldn't get my hopes up high. Look what's happening now. They take you to the top of Universe and then shoot you down to Earth. Not cool HP. I hope those WebOS tablets/devices are exceptional to win me back.
@rmbrown09
Join Starfleet, and you might have a crack at one.
@rmbrown09
unlike the courier, this project actually had a finished product, but it's too bad for them if they want to throw most of it away...
@rmbrown09
Does this mean I can't buy it even if I want to?
@Plazmic Flame
You can buy an Elitebook just like you can buy a Latitude. Small business customer service and support is also usually a grade above the stuff on the consumer page.
The real question then is just does that mean that HP intends for this to be a premium product, and WebOS will be their cheaper consumer device?
@rmbrown09 Lame, even as an iPad fan, I want more decent tablet competition and this is not that. I would like a tablet that you can play actual PC games on.
@rmbrown09
Lets have a race. Which arrives first?
1) HP Slate
2) Duke Nukem Forever
@Why should I have all the fun
Duke Nukem Forever.... obviously
@furquanatique
Yeah, like most consumers want some useless enterprise features on their family tablet. Instant financial failure. No wonder why Microsoft couldn't turn their tablets into consumer success. Catering to nerds is a waste of time and money. Guaranteed this HP Slate will be a failure even at the enterprise level. Ballmer probably had get on his knees and begged HP to continue the Slate project.
@nicholas1987ucsb
Noob who plays pc games?
@rmbrown09
Meh, a new consumer product with WebOS 2.0 = WIN
I'm sure it will be soon
@nicholas1987ucsb
I'd love to see you tap your way out of a death tournament match in UT.
@Zylam
Don't worry, my friend. Your dreams will become an even better reality in 2 months when the ExoPC tablets debut. They improve upon the limited amount of specs we had for the HP Slate in every way, and at a price that matches the iPad.
All this means is that when I want to buy one, when I go to HP.com I have to click the "for Businesses" section rather than "for Consumers."
@rmbrown09 - Very simple...not enough general consumers were expressing enough interest in the device to make it worthwhile for them to 'gamble' on a mass-market release if it.
Epic fail.
Enterprise Fail
@IAMKITTY
iPad WIN !
How did I know this article came from Nilay. xD
@Ducman69
Did it have "something" to do with his "excessive" use of "quotes"?
What the hell?! I had hope for Windows 7 in tablet form :(
@killermojo
Why? If you want a Win7 tablet PC you can buy one now. Win7 on an iPad-like slate is like an elephant on a skateboard - each has strengths but neither was designed for the other. Now, WebOS on a slate is a different matter. Methinks HP is only paying Microsoft lipservice with this announcement and is putting its real eggs into a WebOS slate.
@Canucker
Asus is going to roll out with one but with theirs it'll have a keyboard dock that can turn it into a laptop. So you get a laptop and a slate in one.
@Canucker
I'd like a netbook but in tablet form. I still believe a tablet-specific iteration of Windows 7 (centered around touchscreen control, leaving other functionality of the OS the same) would be very powerful.
Installing Steam and running some of the netbook-capable games with an elegant implementation of cursor emulation would be amazing. You'd leverage everything from the netbook world but gain many of the advantages of a tablet form factor. If this were done properly it would almost totally supercede netbooks, as the ASUS model may prove.
I think this concept would need a heavy dose of innovation, but nothing that should be out of reach from a company with as many resources as Microsoft :)
@killermojo Windows 7 automatically engages tablet specific multi-touch control features. Right out of the box, and it was designed for this from day one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtEhQqS1dw
When people witnessed this in demos, it met great applause. Then Steve Jobs worked his marketing magic, and somehow convinced people that you can't touch a full operating system.
@Ducman69
Wow, that's really cool! Looks like what I've been looking for already exists.
@Ducman69
Were we looking at the same video. That looked awkward and choppy. Typing on the keyboard was slow and zooming was horrific.
Nobody is saying that the windows 7 OS can't do touch. What people are saying is that the applications made for windows 7 are not designed for touch. The guys demo was completely misleading. He went around haphazardly with his fingers and after he pressed things explained what was happening. Most people need to pick a specific tool or a specific email, not the one where your finger just happens to hit. He plowed through the tools in Word displaying the even smaller subtools and options, but he didn't even select anything.
Lets see him do an actual project in something like photoshop, autocad, dreamweaver or better yet lets see him play a game.
I don't buy that video for a second.
@Altivec -- "What people are saying is that the applications made for windows 7 are not designed for touch."
Exactly. I totally agree.
You know how Apple and Android are platforms for writing *new* apps specifically designed for your finger?
I don't think there will be a "touch optimized" version of Filezilla any time soon. It's a regular Windows app, just like the huge catalog of other Windows apps.
Windows tablets of yesterday were all convertible tablets anyway... they knew they couldn't sell a Windows machine like that without a keyboard and touchpad.
So what changed between then and now? Nothing.
Does HP honestly think they will sell more Windows machines by *removing* the keyboard?
@Ducman69
I have a very nice windows 7 pro netbook- the Vaio X. It runs a 2Ghz Atom processor, 2GB RAM and 64 GB SSD hard drive.
It's around 2.5lb with a 6 hour battery, 1/2 inch thick, 1366x768 resolution LED screen and a beautiful carbon fibre casing! Includes VGA output, 2 USB slots, SD card slot and front facing camera. As much as I love it, the biggest drawback v an iPad include:
1. It can get too hot for a tablet
2. Starting it up can take a good minute and a half. Even waking up from hibernation can take over 30 secs. Too long for an always available device.
3. Most apps take a long time to open.
4. Battery life with video is poor. My 6 hour battery turns to 2 hours of video.
5. Wifi and 3G connection and switching isn't as seamless as on the iPad.
In terms of general usability the windows 7 netbook is nowhere close to an iPad. So it's more than making win 7 touch friendly. It's not designed to work with a low powered processor power sipping processor.
I own both products but the vaio is getting a lot less usage now because of it's slowness in getting started and launching of apps etc.
Hulu stutters like crazy on the netbook, while it's smooth on the iPad. That is pretty much the only Flash site I use.
As long as they make some WebOS devices, I'll be happy.
As long as they make some WebOS devices, I'll be happy.
Yeah you know why? Because they don't want to have to support it for media and typical iPad use cases. Sucks...was really hoping for someone big to come out with a decent iPad alternative...Samsung galaxy tab maybe? :|
Any cross-over? Like a dual-boot WebOS 2.0/Win7? I'd buy it in a heartbeat...
@Tahu826 Never happen. The webOS tablet, more than likely, will be ARM based. No Win7 action on ARM.
Is there anyone beyond Apple that's going to figure out how to bring a tablet successfully to market?
@QandnotU Apple brought a giant locked iphone to market. I don't see any tablet computer from Apple.
@watership
You must be blind. Apple has sold over 3 million iPads, and there are tons of apps available for it.
@MrFairladyz I don't think you understood what I meant. I want a computer tablet. I don't care if it's OSx, or WIN7. I wanted a supported OS table with all the options of an OS, and all the benefits of the form factor. That's probably not going to happen now.
@watership
Actually, the iPad is unlocked, unlike the iPhone. Apple did something right to sell 3 million in 3 months so it is frustrating to see no response yet. A WebOS slate is overdue. Hopefully, HP is putting its slate resources there and not in Win7.
@watership
Fine, the iPad does't fit your needs, you're a nerdy hacker that wants it to be open. Apple has figured out what "their" customers wanted and successfully brought a product to market. I'm simply saying, PC manufactures haven't figured out how to bring a tablet to market that satisfies you.
You need to understand that there are people who don't have any knowledge of computers and want something simple and easy to use. This makes up the majority of Apple users.
@watership What are you gonna do with a full blown OS? run photoshop? illustrator? or maybe rip a DVD?....(insert other mouse based applications here)
oh wait, it's a tablet.... so all your full OS mouse based programs will suck.....
What else do you do on a slower computer/netbook/tablet? surf the web, brief document editing, taking notes, maybe a small game here and there..... hmm the iPad (android, and a future webOS tablet) can do all that....
When will people get through their heads that for a tablet to be successful it needs to be strongly coupled between the form factor, user interface, and software? Throwing win7 on it means nothing, its not optimized for touch (and i am not talking about some band-aid hack that adds a touch layer)
@watership
A tablet computer is still a tablet computer, even if engadget commenter watership doesn't like the OS it's running. If you want a tablet PC that's fine, but don't assume 'computer' means just that for everyone else.
@QandnotU "You need to understand that there are people who don't have any knowledge of computers and want something simple and easy to use. This makes up the majority of Apple users."
Actually I think the majority of Apple users are comfortable with computers, they just don't want to have to deal with the complexities most of the time. Thats the bucket I fall in to. I CAN dig into the guts and know my way around, but most of the time i'd rather just get things done. I want to be able to read my e-mail, browse the web, watch videos, etc. that makes up over 80% of my computer use. If I can get a device like the iPad that covers most of my needs most of the time, whats wrong with that? It's more than worth the tradeoffs in complexity and customizeability in exchange for ease of use, stability, security, long battery life, etc. For the heavy lifting I have my desktop.
@watership Yeah, they made those already dumb ass & they failed. No one wants a full-fledged desktop OS on a touchscreen tablet. It just doesnt work.
@watership
" Translation: I want all the benefits of a wood-burning Aga kitchen range in a toaster size."
ROFL fail
-Sent from my iPad
who the hell cares. There is to much tech on the market anyway.
Besides HP is junk. Look at their calculators for instance. They are poorly built and still sport the same shitty interface after 20 plus years. they only thing HP did was changed the case. They suck.