
Hewlett-Packard To Kill Windows 7 Tablet Project - jasonlbaptiste
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/29/hewlett-packard-to-kill-windows-7-tablet-project/
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e1ven
It looks like they really _ARE_ doubling down on WebOS. This is a very bold
move, and frankly, I didn't think they had it in them. Very nice.

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acg
I'm surprised the degree to which Apple is setting the pace in this new
market. With all the resources available to these big players the combination
of hardware and software is proving difficult.

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halo
Perhaps this suggests that people were looking at HP's purchase of Palm in the
wrong way.

HP are the biggest computer manufacturer in the world. While I'm sure entering
the phone market is a bonus to them, if they think that the iPad is a serious
threat to their laptop business, buying Palm in order to be able to speed up
manufacture of an iPad competitor makes perfect sense.

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jarek
I'm not prepared to trust Techcrunch on this. Is this the same source that
told them Last.fm gave listener data to major labels when the last U2 album
leaked?

edit: is Techcrunch considered the Holy Bible around here? I'm a bit new.

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swombat
TC is largely trustworthy. Everyone screws up sometimes (particularly in a
high-stakes environment where some people give you bum leads just to watch you
make a fool of yourself). One fuck-up out of hundreds of reports does not an
unreliable source make.

In this case, I'd say the point is pretty believable. Although you should
never trust anything you read on the internet 100%, I think this one is likely
to be correct.

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jarek
Right. The report just seems a bit off. A day after the acquisition, an
unnamed source goes to Techcrunch before anyone else? Even if the source does
exist, no guarantees they're not lying, deliberately misinforming, or
misinformed themselves. (I wouldn't be surprised if HP was trying to light a
bit of a fire under Microsoft, or really just gauge potential market reaction
à la $999 iPad.)

I'm also somewhat peeved by the title of this submission of HN; no "Rumour:",
no "Source:", no "Techcrunch:", just a statement of fact.

I haven't seen any non-TC confirmation of this story yet.

edit: saw a Business Insider piece which basically said "they might do it". No
attribution.

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necubi
This is a very sensible decision. Ultimately, it will be very hard for
anything running on x86 to compete with ARM at the moment in power/watt, which
is probably the most important metric for these sorts of devices. Inte's
working hard to change that, but they haven't managed it yet.

Furthermore, the constant cries for a Windows 7 slate are misguided. There are
very few benefits to having windows any many disadvantages. While it's true
Window's software will run on such a device, actually using it is a different
matter. Just trying to scroll on the tiny scroll bar or tap a target a few
pixels wide would be impossible with a capacitive screen and your finger,
rendering most desktop applications useless.

If HP is refocusing on a WebOS-based ARM device, they have an actual chance at
matching the iPad's usability and specs. I wish them well. WebOS is a
wonderful operating system, and I'm glad it's finally getting a chance to
flourish.

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MichaelGG
Perhaps 'cause there's no way an HP launcher tacked onto Windows 7 would make
a convincing touch computer?

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megablast
Are Microsoft and HP just pursuing the usual route of annoncing products that
they never intended to ship, to try to take some sting out of Apples iPad
announcement?

I remember a lot of people talking about how great it would be to run W7 on
the HP slate, or how innovative Microsofts courier will be.

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no_mas_caliente
I would think this is less to do with HP wanting to just announce "something"
to steal iPad thunder, and more about them just having gained a incredible
touch OS. To be blunt, while Win7 has made many strides towards being a better
touch OS it is no where near where it needs to be yet for someone to use it
without a mouse and keyboard. There is just too much heavy lifting left to do.

I see this less as "we where never intending to do this," and more "we have
something infinitely better, in house, which is actually built from the ground
up for touch controls. Let's just go with that."

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yardie
B,b,b,but they promised it would be: coming soon, be cheaper than an iPad^, do
everything the iPad couldn't.

^at the time experts assumed iPad would be $999, they were caught off guard
because HP announced it would be less than $1000.

So what happens to all the people that passed on the iPad because the HP Slate
was coming soon? Are they going to get a Joojoo?

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jhuckestein
I'm not convinced that they can crank out a webOS tablet before the second
generation iPad arrives. At that time it will be too late.

While it seems reasonable not to ship a table with Windows 7 this may just as
well have been a deathblow to the Slate altogether.

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jarek
> At that time it will be too late.

The HTC Dream came out after iPhone 3G, and Android seems pretty alive on
phones yet.

The slate market won't settle in a year.

