Friday, January 8, 2010
Apple's purported January 27 introduction of its long-awaited tablet computer has the competition coming out of the woodwork. In hours, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is set to introduce a slate from Hewlett-Packard at Microsoft's keynote address at CES.
Details haven't been announced in order to keep the famous Ballmer thunder from being stolen, but chances are it's a lot like the slate tablets that HP has introduced in prior years. The company's TC1100 was a major force in the early tablet PC world when it was released nearly six years ago. It notably featured a removable keyboard that made it easy to convert the machine into something close to a regular notebook.
How will tonight's newly introduced slate differ? It will certainly offer finger-based multitouch (the original TC1100 only worked with a stylus), will be more powerful, and will hopefully be lighter, cheaper, and offer longer battery life. The original TC1100 cost a veritably apey $2,299, far too much for a '10s consumer to shell out on a computing device.
Alternately, Microsoft could show off a Courier device tonight, an experimental two-paned tablet which Microsoft demonstrated as a prototype last September. Considerably further away from commercial release than a standard slate, such a device would probably be beaten to market -- considerably -- by Apple, plus it would surely be far more expensive.
What will it be? The secret will be revealed soon... at least in part.
By: DocMemory
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