HP Revives Tablet Business With Windows-Based Slate 2

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Remember HP’s fiasco with the Slate, then the TouchPad? You’d think the company would run from the tablet market like a Silicon Valley investor with his hair on fire — but you’d be wrong.

After pulling back from the possibility of exiting the computer making sector altogether, HP is attempting to re-enter the tumultuous (but highly profitable) tablet market. The company is launching the Slate 2, complete with 8.9-inch stylus-bound capacitive screen, Intel’s Atom 1.5GHz Z670 chip, 32GB storage, forward and rear cameras and six-hour battery.

However, missing is the webOS, which HP seems to have certainly ditched for Windows 7. You might remember webOS powered both the ill-fated TouchPad and the first go at the Slate. The device is aimed at “business and vertical markets” rather the bruising consumer sector which Apple seems to own lock, stock and barrel. Hence, the second-tier hardware.

All of which begs the question: if HP isn’t going to compete against the iPad and it isn’t going to enter the Android universe, why bother?

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