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?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
19 responses to “HP Revives Tablet Business With Windows-Based Slate 2”
HP still don’t get it…
ahm, they didn’t read Job’s biography, ‘as soon as you have styluses, you’re dead’
Try and try until you succeed.
Well is does run Windows so in an enterprise environment they will do just fine..unfortunately
Well is does run Windows so in an enterprise environment they will do just fine..unfortunately
I can’t wait to get one of these for $99.
This just in, Ford has cornered the auto market with their new, exciting, market leading Model T. Everyone else stop building cars and exit the market immediately, the battle is already lost.
Awsome HP built an awsome tablet except it has a stylus and its not 2001 :)
The HP Slate 2 looks to be about 3 lbs, twice as thick as the iPad, requires a stylus, and runs Windows. How many ways can you spell FAIL?
This is obviously catering to niche markets like healthcare. Just two words HP; tick tock. More important than not wanting robust interfaces and OS underpinnings on our devices, it’s discovering that we don’t need them. “Less” has become the new “more.” Even enterprise is waking up to that fact. Quick! Sell these before the suits with the credit cards figure it out.