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Rumoured price $540 & Adobe Demos Flash & Air on HP's Slate Device

Mr Bigs said:
I think you're trying to downplay or rather trivialize features and capabilities. A full OS might not be what you need but this doesn't apply to others. The Macbook Air would have made much more sense in a tablet form factor.:)
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I just think people are overestimating the real value of some of these features. They should be trivialized for the average user in my opinion. I know very few people that absolutely need Flash or the ability to connect external drives, and even less will want to connect their iPad to their HDTV. And the further from the tech world I look, the less people need things like that.

I think the idea of a simpler, easier to use consumer home computer is where we'll ultimately end up. Putting a lot of extra features in that only a tiny subset of users ever will use, just because they might, isn't the best way to design a coherent, elegant, polished system.

I'd love for my Air to be a touchscreen tablet, but I don't need or want full OSX on it. That's why I'm replacing it with an iPad. iPhone OS will do what most people need, and will do it better than a full OS on a tablet. Most of the people I know don't want a netbook. They'd only complain about it being too slow and less useful than they thought.

I've owned several tablet PCs, so I'm talking from quite a bit of personal experience.

EDIT: I guess my thoughts are that the iPad has a far larger potential market than the other tablets right now. There will be plenty of tech people that will buy the Slate or the Adam, but average consumers who might consider the iPad would never buy either of those, if they ever even hear about them. There are far, far more people that don't "need a full OS" than those who do. Every news channel and local news show will feature the lines at the Apple stores on April 3rd. You won't see that with any of the other tablets, whenever they are released. Overall, I don't think feature sets are necessarily what people will be looking at when they make their purchase decision.
 
So if the Slate is running windows 7 does that mean the slate has to boot up or shutdown when you want to use it?
 
diabolic said:
I just think people are overestimating the real value of some of these features. They should be trivialized for the average user in my opinion. I know very few people that absolutely need Flash or the ability to connect external drives, and even less will want to connect their iPad to their HDTV. And the further from the tech world I look, the less people need things like that.

I think the idea of a simpler, easier to use consumer home computer is where we'll ultimately end up. Putting a lot of extra features in that only a tiny subset of users ever will use, just because they might, isn't the best way to design a coherent, elegant, polished system.

I'd love for my Air to be a touchscreen tablet, but I don't need or want full OSX on it. That's why I'm replacing it with an iPad. iPhone OS will do what most people need, and will do it better than a full OS on a tablet. Most of the people I know don't want a netbook. They'd only complain about it being too slow and less useful than they thought.

I've owned several tablet PCs, so I'm talking from quite a bit of personal experience.

EDIT: I guess my thoughts are that the iPad has a far larger potential market than the other tablets right now. There will be plenty of tech people that will buy the Slate or the Adam, but average consumers who might consider the iPad would never buy either of those, if they ever even hear about them. There are far, far more people that don't "need a full OS" than those who do. Every news channel and local news show will feature the lines at the Apple stores on April 3rd. You won't see that with any of the other tablets, whenever they are released. Overall, I don't think feature sets are necessarily what people will be looking at when they make their purchase decision.
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THIS. For the millionth time.

Thank you.

Again, for emphasis, we need to stop confusing ticking off boxes on a spec sheet with a polished, enjoyable user experience.

The iPad is changing everything. If you don't believe this, let's revisit after 6, 18, and 36 months.
 
Mr Bigs said:
I think you're trying to downplay or rather trivialize features and capabilities. A full OS might not be what you need but this doesn't apply to others. The Macbook Air would have made much more sense in a tablet form factor.:)
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Interesting - I take the complete opposite viewpoint. A full OS makes very little sense to me in a tablet form. If I was look for a ultra-portable with full OSX, I would buy an Air.

A super fast, streamlined OS that's optimized to do a few (important) things very, very well with a UI specifically designed as a touch interface makes much more sense to use in a strictly touchscreen device.

For a few years at work, I used tablets running full Windows. It was a miserable experience.
 
Just imagine the fun you could have with this HP Slate.

I mean, once you get passed the disk fragmentation, bloated software, security vulnerabilities, lack of dedicated software, and non customized inner bits, the whole tablet could be pretty cool.

But no where near as cool as the iPad will be. It's a delusion to think that any other tablet will have the following that the iPad already has.
 
laserfox said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-RZAwQq0E

Not to start a flame war, but the HP Slate does look usable. I know Windows 7 is not suited for touch input but HP seems to have built a nice suite of touch apps that covers the main use of an internet slate. Plus I'd tweak Windows 7 to display lager icons etc for easy touch.

Also according to leaks Engadget the price is rumored at $540 (40 more than entry iPad) not bad considering you get the luxury of usb port, web cam, sd reader without needing to buy accessories!

I can imagine it'd be aimple to just plug in your desktop keyboard or use any of your bluetooth peripherals. Also the netbook internals is not that bad considering I have a netbook that runs Windows 7 and Snow Leopard like a dream.

MS Onenote is indispensable to me so I'd be happy to try this.


Your thoughts?
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I think the HP Slate looks very promising and assuming it has good battery life, simplicity of design and doesn't heat up like a hot pad then it looks like a winner for its Windows category. My own experience with Flash is that it's a long way from being a sleek engine (when running on my fastest hardware, it's taking up 30 to 40 percent of the CPU cycles (even dual core hardware). For me personally, I consider Java a far more valuable benchmark for running the entire web. Many of my clients in education, on campuses, in research labs and even among enterprise mobile teams; they all use Java on a daily basis. If the Slate can run the latest JRE, it will be one of my first non-Apple purchases. As for Windows 7, it's not Mac or iPhone. But it's vastly better than Vista in terms of managing the user environment in a more forgiving way.
 
From listening to podcast, most reviewers say that no companies have been able to duplicate the mult-touch, multi-point interface that of Apple. They may have come close, but the experience is not quite the same. HP slate may sound good with its bells and whistles, but the experience may be sour. I suspect the battery life will be half or less that of the iPad. Also, there's no app store. HP slate may serve to be a movie player and music. However, it costs too much for what it offers.
 
yodaxl7 said:
From listening to podcast, most reviewers say that no companies have been able to duplicate the mult-touch, multi-point interface that of Apple. They may have come close, but the experience is not quite the same. HP slate may sound good with its bells and whistles, but the experience may be sour. I suspect the battery life will be half or less that of the iPad. Also, there's no app store. HP slate may serve to be a movie player and music. However, it costs too much for what it offers.
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When you think about it the iPad costs more than what it has to offer if you want to look at it that way.
 
Mr Bigs said:
When you think about it the iPad costs more than what it has to offer if you want to look at it that way.
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You could look at it that way, if you are looking @ tech specs alone.

Just like some of the previous posters here, I've owned Tablet PCs for a long time, my first being one of the original Motion Tablets about 8 years ago.

Those types of tablets are never going to be successful commercially on a large scale, and here's why.

A tablet PC(running a full desktop OS) is by and large a worse experience than running a regular netbook or notebook. Despite what a desktop OS is "designed for" it is firstly a desktop OS. Instead of making the Tablet a stand alone device, Apple has discovered that it needs to be a companion device.

I also own personally 5 different PCs, have been building rigs for a better part of 20 years, and am generally a guy that likes control and likes to tweak.

However, I understand that this mindset is not going to work out in a tablet device period(mass market).

The truth is people are paying for the ease of use. With a tablet, a highly portable device without a keyboard, etc, they should be firstly easy to use, easy to pickup, and have great battery life.

That's what the iPad is about, and that's why I've ordered one myself. When it comes to browsing in the living room or having coffee in the morning, or carrying it with me for lunch breaks, etc, I want ease.

Ease in experience, no resistance from the device(battery life, etc), a pleasurable and easy way to enjoy things. The truth is that Apple hit the market here.

I'm paying for this device for the experience. (First Apple product I've purchased since the original iPod)
 
laserfox said:
Your thoughts?
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Atom + Windows = pain.

Really if you want windows, you are much better off with a laptop. Or if you must have windows with touch, a convertible like the HP TM2, so after you use the one or two touch suitable apps, your revert to KB/Mouse.

Most of the real user/tester demos(as opposed to a promo which just shows the highlights that make it look good) of people using windows 7 in tablet mode is an exercise in frustration at best both in terms of OS and CPU power to drive it.

In contrast you can see several neophyte hands-on that were shot after the iPad announcement and they show little difference between random new user and the promos.

The big difference is everything about the iPad is touch, all the interface elements, all the applications, it is the way everything was meant to be used, rather than a thin touch layer on top of a keyboard/mouse interface, with the majority of apps desgined for keyboard with keyboard/mouse and touch not even an afterthought.

I predict the full time usable Microsoft Tablet solutions will run WinPhone7 or a variant, but they will be years behind in support.
 
My thoughts are still that a Full OS on a tablet will continue to sell as they have for the past 10 years. Poorly. Recent article on Tom's Hardware seems to be pretty accurate (imo) about all the "other" tablets coming to market.

Flash, multitasking and a check list of USB/SD ports won't sell tablets that perform poorly and are difficult to navigate due to high resolutions on a small screen. Tablets with full Windows is nothing new, it's been around for a decade and still hasn't caught on, HP's slate won't defy a decades worth of proof. They have no software specifically for their touch interface. All the applications and software you use on your desktops may install, but the experience of using Photoshop on a underpowered device won't somehow make everyone want one. If they did, tablets would already be selling like hotcakes.

So far HP, Archos, MSI etc... have simply created a smaller version of already failing market segment. (Tablet PC's)

Apple created a larger version of a very successful device in a rapidly expanding market segment. (Mobile Media Devices)

If you can't see that for what it is, you may never understand Apple and why people have interest in the iPad.
 
Interesting points. Let me riddle you this though. Is there a difference between a niche market and a failing market.

Meaning - these full OS table computers that have been around for 10 years. Isn't it possible there is a market (albeit it not a LARGE one). Could you be suggesting that in 10 years of "trying" - these companies haven't realized that their devices aren't being widely adopted.

Or could it just be that some devices are more niche. That there are markets besides mainstream that are using these devices making it a profit center for these companies.

I think it's an important distinction to make between niche markets and "failed" devices.

I won't make any silly analogies. I'll just say there are a ton of products that make money. Maybe not billions. But money. And only certain segments of the population/world have ANY interest in them. The fact that they exist, continue to exist must mean they are at least making someone SOME money and getting SOME use or they would have ceased to exist years ago.
 
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