HP’s Slate Targets Enterprise, Not the iPad
HP, long expected to be one of Apple’s main competitors in the tablet market, has fired its first shot at the competition, and it’s an interesting one.
With little fanfare, the company released its Slate 500 tablet, running Microsoft’s Windows 7 OS. Since HP acquired Palm earlier this year, it had been widely speculated that the company’s first tablet release would feature Palm’s WebOS.
HP has now announced that a WebOS tablet will be released sometime in 2011.
While the general public may perceive the Slate as a competitor to the iPad, HP has taken a significantly different approach. In fact, the company has positioned itself not as direct competition for Apple, but as targeting a different market altogether.
As opposed to Apple’s targeting of mainstream consumers, HP is focusing on Enterprise customers by emphasizing the power and compatibility of the Slate, rather than the tablet design.
HP is making no bones about their target market, either. The company’s official statement on the Slate states that it is “designed specifically for business, enterprise and vertical customers.” This stands in stark contrast to Apple’s marketing, with TV ads that emphasize the common everyday uses of the iPad for typical users.
Not only is HP emphasizing the business aspects of the device, it’s almost dismissing the tablet aspect altogether.
Carol Hess-Nickels, HP’s director of business notebook marketing, described the Slate as a “full-function PC” which will not only utilize Windows 7 but will also run “your office applications.”
According to Hess-Nickels, the Slate “just happens to be in a slate form factor.”
While some may describe HP’s marketing as evidence of their reluctance to go head-to-head with Apple, it seems like a logical choice.
Many Enterprise customers have found themselves unable to make full use of the iPad as they were unable to successfully integrate it with their existing Microsoft based office software. While Windows 7 is not a tablet optimized OS, it will offer those users a compatible device, capable of more productivity than the iPad.
In the long run, the Slate and the iPad will most likely not do battle for the tablet market. But, if the Slate is successful within its target market, that will open doors for HP’s eventual WebOS device to take on the iPad directly, and even if the Slate fails, HP’s tablet future will not be jeopardized.
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Filed under: apple, business computers, hp, iPad, Microsoft, news, tablets, Windows 7