HP shelving the Slate?
This just heard from a source “who’s been briefed on the matter” over at TechCrunch – HP is killing the tablet that they’ve hyped for months as a better alternative to the iPad. Now, we’ve looked at a few of the netvertibles and tablets already on the market and most of em’ fall way short of being serious competition. We were holding out on the Slate being the one, but ah – who were we kidding. There could be a number of reasons why HP (may) be killing the Slate.
One of them is the “meh” review of the leaked Slate. Spanish website Conecti.ca got their hands on a leaked Slate, put up a few pictures, wrote a short description and basically called the Slate “whatever”. Also unlike the iPad pre-release hype, the Slate has had next to none. Even though HP have desperately been trying to drum some up. And thirdly, the OS and CPU seem to be of some concern. Quote from TechCrunch -
“Our source tells us that HP is not satisfied with Windows 7 as a tablet operating system… [and] may also be abandoning Intel-based hardware for its slate lineup simply because it’s too power hungry.”
HP’s official response to these rumors was that they “don’t comment on rumors or speculation.” Now that seems like a cop-out if there ever was one. A company going ahead with their product would probably say that these rumors were baseless.
If true, we actually agree with this move. If HP isn’t confident that their product cannot compete, withholding it for now is brave and might save them a chunk of cash.
Filed under: HP Mini Netbook Review, Tablets