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[Merged] HP Slate - Upcoming Tablet, Possibly Running WebOS
- Thread starter mbell75
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hahaha i know someone that went to teach english in japan and taught the kids outdated slang like the bees knees. i guess its not so outdated?
MS Courier was officially cancelled today.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/29/leak.has.ms.dropping.dual.screen.courier/
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/29/leak.has.ms.dropping.dual.screen.courier/
You mean vapourware vs reality.
How can something that does not exist be a 'beautiful alternative' to something that does exist!
When there is real alternative in the market perhaps then you can make a sensible comparison!!
Thanks for the newsflash. Do you even bother scanning the thread titles on the first page in a forum?
Or...will be canceled, or indefinitely delayed (again)? It now appears we won't be seeing an HP Slate anytime soon.
Indeed, it does not. Oh, they may eventually produce one, after rethinking it. WebOS and an ARM CPU is certainly a step in the right direction (should have better battery life and performance than a Win7/Atom). But then it's competing even more on the same ground as the iPad, which will have a 12-18 month lead and be into its second or third iteration by then.
I agree, windows 7 while not snappy or the right fit now for a tablet, would have kept many people who wanted a tablet away from the iPad. (me included) In the meantime they could have worked on the webos version. Being so open, I could not see why they couldn't release the slate and offer webOS upgrade and have a dual booting system. Dual boot webOS and windows would be interesting.
I very much agree. It will be interesting to see how HP develops it. Putting a full Win 7 on a tablet didn't really make sense.
Wow, it's really funny to read the change in tone of all the HP/MS apologists on the Gizmodo comments page about both the cancelled Courier and the Slate.
After months puffed up self righteousness regarding "iPad killer" this and that, these people can all eat a big plate of their words and go home to cry into their netbooks while the rest of us enjoy our iPads that actually do exist.
Even on these forums I have read tons of posts from angry Apple haters who had all but written their checks to HP for a new Slate that now will never be.
You guys thought that vaporware would crush the iPad, did ya'? Your precious Win7 "creation device" with Flash support and USB-who-gives-a-crap, whatever???
Well, HP had actually used that brick they "created," and were at least smart enough to realize that their goose was cooked and it couldn't come close to competing with what Apple has magically produced, so they wisely pulled the plug before letting it loose and embarrassing themselves.
My apologies for the schadenfreude but if you've read the kind of nonsense and vitriol that I have in these forums and others, then you might also feel a tinge of the same at this news...
After months puffed up self righteousness regarding "iPad killer" this and that, these people can all eat a big plate of their words and go home to cry into their netbooks while the rest of us enjoy our iPads that actually do exist.
Even on these forums I have read tons of posts from angry Apple haters who had all but written their checks to HP for a new Slate that now will never be.
You guys thought that vaporware would crush the iPad, did ya'? Your precious Win7 "creation device" with Flash support and USB-who-gives-a-crap, whatever???
Well, HP had actually used that brick they "created," and were at least smart enough to realize that their goose was cooked and it couldn't come close to competing with what Apple has magically produced, so they wisely pulled the plug before letting it loose and embarrassing themselves.
My apologies for the schadenfreude but if you've read the kind of nonsense and vitriol that I have in these forums and others, then you might also feel a tinge of the same at this news...
It also won't be that easy to compete with iPad from the price point. Still WebOS is great, so let's hope that HP manages to utilize it well.
This is another example of how Apple enters a market and dominates (not guaranteed with the iPad, but possible).
Apple enters the market place with a really good, tangible device. Competitors, instead of innovating, wait to see what Apple does. They realize that what they came up with in vaporware videos won't cut it or isn't possible. So they scramble to match Apple and by the time they finally release a product, they are a full generation behind Apple. The whole time they are playing catchup, and the market share battle is almost lost before it is started.
Well said, when will people get real about vaporware. The iPad is here, you can actually buy it (assuming it's in stock) and use it!
It is an incredible device given what the oppostion has managed to come up with so far. Accept it what it is, watch the app market grow. If you don't like it go and get a netbook or whatever.
Umm, surely the answer to this is fairly obvious? HP have just invested a lot of time and money preparing this device for launch and promoting it. While it doesn't match up to the iPad in several important ways (battery life, performance and design chief amongst them) it seemed halfway decent for a traditional Windows tablet. They must, by now, have done the research into potential sales and markets for the device. They may have bought Palm but any product of that acquisition as far as tablets go is at least six months off. That tends to point towards two possibilities:
1) Production issues that would have prevented a summer launch and pushed the Slate into the mass launch of Android powered devices that's coming in the fall.
2) Their figures showed there simply wasn't a big enough market there for this machine.
Personally, I'm going to say the second one is most likely. The Slate really wasn't anything new, you could happily buy a tablet PC like this with full Windows operating system on it, albeit at a higher price point, for years and they don't shift. Why? Simple, there are very few applications that you need a full desktop OS for AND that work better on a touchscreen device (especially a finger-based interface) which tends to make a cheaper, equally powerful laptop a better solution for most people. The only thing the Slate was really doing that was new was bringing the price point down to the $550 mark. Sadly the way they achieved that was by putting netbook internals in there so you still had the same price premium over the equivalent netbook that you used to have over more powerful laptops. The end user experience of running Windows 7 on a 10" touch screen would have been worse than running that same OS on a netbook (and let's not even talk about running applications designed for a keyboard/mouse interface.... *shudder*) so why would you pay that premium? Or, perhaps that should be, why would the mass market pay that premium where they've refused to do so in the past?
Basically, while it's a little surprising HP got so far along the development path (they must have pretty much finished and been ready to go full scale manufacturing if they were aiming for a June launch?) I'm definitely not surprised to see them back off. It's the same old story from the crowd who complained about the iPad not running 'full' OS X really: what benefits do you get over the equivalent laptop and do they outweigh the compromises? I've never, not once, seen a really solid answer to that question and never ever an answer that would make good solid commercial sense if you were looking to shift hundreds of thousands of units (or more of course).
Actually, a big part of that is that Apple are the only major company who not only produce their own hardware and software from the ground up but who have money to burn so can afford to take chances. It's an unfortunate side effect of the way the PC industry built itself up and Microsoft's positioning as sole software provider (unfortunate for us the customers I mean). Basically MS have to design by committee to keep everyone happy which creates long lead times and removes the focus you get in a dictatorship like Apple. Even those companies like HTC who have built remarkable products are ultimately dependent on someone else to provide the OS and while I'm sure they can influence the direction of that OS they're not in a position to demand changes. Google are doing interesting things with Android but now have to recover from several mis-steps in both development practices and partner management, with a particular focus on delivering reliable and rapid updates that can apply to ALL devices easily so people don't end up with three month old flagship phones (and tablets of course) that are stuck waiting six months for an update.
HP acquiring Palm might just give us our first genuine like-for-like competitor to Apple and it's going to be very interesting to see where they go with it. If they've got any sense they'll go find a young, talented designer, tell them to take risks and prototype the hell out of potential consumer devices to get out from under Apple's shadow. Personally I hope they pull that off, more competition and more new ideas are always welcome and webOS is a good product which deserves a better chance than the Pre and Pixi.
Personally, I think whatever non-Apple device finally comes out it will need to be better than the iPad in a few ways.
- Stand-alone and doesn't need a "master" to get files to it.
- Physical ports for USB and SD
- A touch screen which is even more intuitive than the Apple ones thus allowing both finger and stylus control without inconvenient hard to learn shortcuts.
- An OS and graphics that can support various applications that would benefit from a tablet-like device.
- Stay cool and not get hot.
- Maintain the slim profile
- Maintain a light weight
- Optional gloss or matte screens
These are just some of the few things I have thought about. Personally, I don't need most of them, but I know if these things were included on other devices, it would make them true competitors.
- Stand-alone and doesn't need a "master" to get files to it.
- Physical ports for USB and SD
- A touch screen which is even more intuitive than the Apple ones thus allowing both finger and stylus control without inconvenient hard to learn shortcuts.
- An OS and graphics that can support various applications that would benefit from a tablet-like device.
- Stay cool and not get hot.
- Maintain the slim profile
- Maintain a light weight
- Optional gloss or matte screens
These are just some of the few things I have thought about. Personally, I don't need most of them, but I know if these things were included on other devices, it would make them true competitors.
I think your analysis is WAY off.
The Slate really wasn't anything new, you could happily buy a tablet PC like this with full Windows operating system on it, albeit at a higher price point, for years and they don't shift.
The slate was a new form factor. Small, light, offering an enhanced touch interface and a much longer battery life and a much lower price point then in the past. I know alot of people who were jazzed for the Slate. Because it ran the applications they need it to run with out having to buy new ones. It also was not locked down like the iPad is, anyone could write apps for it because it's windows.
It's the same old story from the crowd who complained about the iPad not running 'full' OS X really: what benefits do you get over the equivalent laptop and do they outweigh the compromises? I've never, not once, seen a really solid answer to that question and never ever an answer that would make good solid commercial sense if you were looking to shift hundreds of thousands of units (or more of course).
I can run MS Office, the gold standard for office productivity.
I can use ANY browser I want(Firefox/chrome/Opera/etc).
I can use Photoshop(albet older versions)
I can use the custom applications written inside my company
I can use Flash
I can run my companys accounting software
I can use Mathcad
I can run JAVA
I can run pretty much any application written for the Windows OS in the last 10 years, except games. And I can write my own. ALL with out Apples approval. No one tells me whats appropriate for my tablet, no one tells me wether I'm allowed to write software for my tablet, and no one tells me there's a life time limit of 2 Slates.
The reality is a GOOD real OS based pad would crush the iPad simpley because it could do so much more then the iPad because it was designed too. Was the Slate that product? Maybe not, but once the market gets rolling I'd say this is one Apple is not a shoe in to dominate long term. They haven't made a significant dent in the personal computer world since the Apple II.
This coming from a iPad & iPhone lover. But I am an Apple hater. Thier buisness practices are attrocious and thier "we know better then you" attitude discusting.
HP will own Palm by the end of the summer. And that means that they will have the Web OS crown jewel. The Web OS on a tablet is probably the only competition that the iPad will really have.
Funnily enough it looks like HP and Microsoft just admitted Apple did know better than them afterall. Ultimately i think they've both looked at the iPad and thought "S**T! Back to the drawing board."
As for the iPad not remaining market dominant because its lcoked down. Well, look at all those open MP3 players that will play anything you throw at them, many are cheaper than iPods, many sound better, many have better hardware. What's the market leader? Er, iPod, and has been for many years now.
with this logic, you:
Will wait 5 minutes for boot-up
Will have stuttering screens
Will experience screen lag doing basically any task
Will experience destructive code from others
Will have the OS crash on a daily basis
Will have to augment the hardware from basic specs to be useful
Will have a hell of a time with re-boots
Will have thousands of annoying dialog boxes and pop-ups that don't help you
But I do agree with you, for a business individual in an enterprise environment the ABILITY to run desktop class applications and custom code would be a really big benefit and a major selling point to many.
Unfortunately, there are trade-offs to consider.
I can run anything... albeit painfully slow and unresponsive
--or--
I can run limited software and have a great user experience... but won't be as productive for business purposes.
Completely agree...webos in a tablet form would kick...luv my pre just for the webos...multi tasking, perfect app switching solution...it's brilliant