Where is the iPad’s competition?
By this time, I’d expected to see some real comers gunning for Apple’s iPad tablet. Hasn’t happened.
You want to talk about HP’s just-released Slate 500? It has a starting list price of $799. An iPad can cost that much, but the price starts at $499, and people have demonstrated that they’re willing to pay that much and more. Are people going to feel the same way about the Slate 500? Highly doubtful.
The Slate has an 8.9-in. screen, compared to iPad’s 9.7 in., and it runs Windows 7. Now, tell me, how many Windows 7 apps are there for a pure touch-screen tablet? The iPad boasts over 5,000. And get this: For your 800 bucks, you get a Wi-Fi-only device. Makes you wonder whether HP’s goal is to see whether it can ship a product that can die even faster than Microsoft’s Kin did.
Some people would tell you that since Windows is under the hood, the Slate is going to get snapped up by business users who wouldn’t touch an Apple product. Really? Thousands of people are already buying iPads for business use.