By At CES in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer announced Microsoft’s entry into a new product category with an HP Slate running Windows 7. Now we’ve got smartphones, smartbooks, superphones, tablets, etc… how the heck are we defining “Slate” anyways? Ballmer provides his own interpretation:
“They’re more powerful than a phone and almost as powerful as a PC. Perfect for reading, surfing the web and taking entertainment on the go,”
And according to TechCrunch, a version of the HP Slate nearly identical to the one Microsoft announced by HP will be launching with Android. Here is a quick video of the HP Slate with Windows 7 to give you a reference point:
When asked about the possibility of an HP Android Slate, here is how Marlene Somsak (HP Media Relations Director) responded:
“I’m certain that we will be announcing new Slates in the future as they are a very interesting area for us. There are also tons of HP Labs activities looking at a numerous different areas. As of now we are not announcing a new Android-based slate.”
Consider that a yes – the company has already shown off an HP Android Netbook at CES so it is pretty obvious that Android is an area of growth for them. And “HP Labs” activities would certainly suggest they’re testing lots of different things.
In addition to hardware, HP is diligently working on software in the form of media partnerships. The New York Times is reporting that HP is in talks with Conde Naste, Business Week, Bloomberg and others to offer a new magazine-like content experience for the device that would include both text and videos.
We’ll be watching this story closely as “Slate” seems to be the buzzword of the last few weeks.
How does it compare to the Notion Ink Adam? That’s my current “device to beat”. 10″ screen, PixelQi display, USB ports and HDMI video out, etc.
Johnkzin is the adam better then the islate from what you have seen of it?
I know I am alittle off topic here but ahhh you with all the upgrading android is doing they really need to beef up there on screen keyboard because iphone kills androids. It needs attention like asap…..it is just not very smooth at all like other phones on screen keyboards even outside of iphone…and that is something u would think Google would have fixed along time ago instead of adding other new features….new features ontop of a not to. ..sharp keyboard just ain’t good at all
The fact that it runs 7 means that it’s x86, which means I might as well run Ubuntu on it instead of Android. Will Android Market apps run on both x86 and ARM implementations? I think they *might* (they’re bytecode, not native), but I’m not going to bet on it.
i would love to see these come out with phone features. I’ve noticed for a while with netbooks getting smaller and more powerful and phones getting larger and adding pc like features AND with all the wireless abilities we have now. I would love to just have one of these and my bluetooth car feature and earpiece and it would serve as both.
Will it work for Verizon?
hey rob, is it that slow and boring at the ces u only got one article to show for or r u just having too much fun in vegas, ;) guess ‘what happens in vegas stays in vegas’ still holds true.
The promo shows the Slate user performing iPhone like multi-touch. Does this mean Apple will loosen up it’s patent on multi-touch?
I wouldn’t buy anything HP has to make. Their support is at the bottom of the list amongst other companies. Especially getting help with a pc.. it’s a nightmare. “sell them and forget them” is their motto.