Although I’ve yet to personally find a reason for purchasing a tablet PC, the 300 000 iPads (supposedly) sold by Apple over the first weekend indicate that there is some interest. Whether this extends further than early adopters (and general Apple freaks, though I’m not sure there’s a difference) remains to be seen. It’s a good 200 000 sales less than the iPhone’s first weekend, and perhaps that’s proportional to the iPad’s current state of uselessness.
Much has been said about the features that the iPad does not have and I agree – I can’t quite understand why you’d want an oversized iPod Touch unless you’re a granny with poor eyesight. Hewlett-Packard also agrees, as their 30 second promotional video for their Slate tablet PC points out all the features the Slate has (or rather may have) that the iPad does not.
Slate: Nice Roc
Apple has responded – finally – by announcing that the iPhone OS 4.0 will finally provide users with a much sought after multitasking feature. While this is a good step forward, it is not true multitasking in the sense that the user has full control over what applications run. Missing from the array of allowed multitasking applications are anything to do with Instant Messaging or Micro Blogging. Like Twitter. And the upgrade will only be available in the third quarter of 2010.
This is where the Slate may succeed – assuming HP actually set a release date for the device. Engadget recently obtained a slide, apparently leaked from HP directly, containing the specifications for the Slate, and how it compares to the iPad. Notably, the slate has a faster processor, a proper operating system (Windows 7 with an HP enhanced touch user interface), 1080p video playback and two cameras – one front facing for video conferencing and one rear facing for photo’s. Where it loses is in battery life – 5 hours is only half that of the iPad’s – and display size.
This may all end up being idle speculation, and the Slate could be cumbersome and useless, particularly if HP do not get Windows 7 to work well with a touch interface. Though if all that HP has achieved is to scare Apple into including multitasking then I suppose that’s something.
My only question relates back to the first paragraph, and it’s a question market analysts also pose: have these companies actually done research to see if there is a viable long term market for tablet PCs? They have some way to go before I’ll hand over a ton of my hard earned cash.
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