Wow, it looks like my prediction that the HP Slate would be taken off the market within six months of its introduction was incorrect. In fact, it appears as if the HP Slate won’t come to market at all. After hype from Steve Ballmer and much hype about heralding a generation of fully functional tablets (as opposed to half-function iPads, one would assume), it seems that this was all much ado about nothing.
Of course, the rumors are rumors right now. No official word has come from HP yet. The story comes from TechCrunch, who cites the infamous A. Source in the matter. Still, I think that this rumor might be right. I think the release of the iPad took HP off guard. They thought that the iPad was not going to be able to have the battery life that it does, and they thought the iPad would be more heavily hammered for its limited operating system. As it turns out, though, the iPad has received positive reception so far, and HP has been forced to backpedal.
This backpedaling also may be contributed to by HP’s recent purchase of Palm. HP has already said it wants to make wide-spread use of the WebOS, so HP may have decided to cancel the Slate and instead work on a tablet using WebOS. In other words, they’re trying to more closely copy Apple. I think that’s a mistake – you can’t beat Apple at their own game – but I guess time will tell.
Source: TechCrunch
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