HP ships their Win 7 Slate for $799

It has a USB port, headphone jacks, keyboard button (including the always useful Alt + Ctrl + Delete key). Interestingly the right side is also home to a slide-out Windows license.

These are the sort of decisions (Ctrl + Alt + Delete) and required Windows license sticker that really just go to show that MS still thinks of tablets as PCs. Oh, and the fact that it is running stock Windows 7. They don’t get it.

State of the Tablet

It is looking like 2010 is going to be the year of the beginning of the tablet computer. Everyone seems to be jumping in the game. Apple led the way with the iPad earlier this year and has sold a lot of them.

I love my iPad and it really is a great tool. It is the ultimate couch surfer and has utility far beyond my iPhone.

So Dell introduced the Streak which is a 5” Android “tablet”. Samsung unveiled their GalaxyTab which will only be available (for a reasonable price) under carrier contract. Then, yesterday, RIM jumped in with the enterprise-class Playbook. The Playbook actually looks like the most compelling competitor to the iPad with strong software design and adequate hardware.

However, the battle for tablets will not be won by specs alone. Engadget and Gizmodo both put up spec comparisons. The iPad falls a little behind in this mainly because it was announced 9 months ago and some of comparisons aren’t even on the market yet. But that is besides the point. While the hardware can enhance the experience, you can’t compare mHz and RAM directly because this is a different game. Each of the tablets runs a different OS. They use resources differently and comparisons are now more about feel and experience than cold hard specs. This is why I think Apple is winning the smartphone and tablet markets (profits, not necessarily market-share). They provide the best experience top to bottom. Android feels like the Windows XP of Apple’s Snow Leopard. It gets the job done is rough and sometimes frustrating. RIM’s OS looks nice but we’ll see how much app support they get from developers. They are now on their third SDK and going the HTML/CSS/JavaScript route like HP’s (Palm) WebOS.

Also of note are unannounced WebOS tablets from HP that supposedly will launch next year. Also, Ballmer said that a lot of Windows 7 tablets will hit the market this Fall but besides the shoddy tablet we saw of an HP prototype nothing has seen the light of day from Microsoft’s camp. Of course they are pushing Windows Phone 7 Series so who can blame them? Of course cool smartphones were cool two years ago. Way to go MS. Only 2.5 years behind the curve. At this rate I expect to see a decent shipping tablet OS from MS in 2015.

So there we have it - The Slate State of the Tablet.