Apple iPad vs HP Slate 500 - The Force Unleashed in the Tablet Wars

The throne is but a piece of wood covered with velvet

Napoleon, (quoted by Thiers)

People, don’t I and I just fass’ as Jamaicans are wont to say? So here I go “fass-ing” again, proof that I am a technician at heart and not a manager, as obviously as a self-publishing blogger and guest blogger on Administrator Kirk’s Geezam blog, I cannot be trusted to keep a hot story secret.

People, the Tablet Wars has officially begun, as per my prognostications to a bunch of so-called Shurpower Engineers back in 2009! Apple now controls 95% of the brand new Tablet Market, if the Strategy Analytics report carried by Reuters is to believed as stated in the article “Apple has 95 percent of tablet market: Strategy Analytics”, published Tuesday November 2 2010, 7:59 am ET, Reuters, Yahoo! News.

The Samsung Galaxy, though on the blitzkrieg offensive, is effectively shooting themselves in the foot, as now the Samsung Galaxy Tablets on all four (4) major Telecom Providers are overpriced, a problem that the 7” Google Android Samsung Galaxy Tablet had from the beginning as stated in the article “Samsung Galaxy Tab pricing will limit success”, published Monday October 11, 2010 2:31 pm ET by Tony Bradley, Yahoo! News.

This has now reiterated in the article questioning the wisdom of using two (2) year contracts to sell a tablet, as Laptops and Netbooks, the device which the Tablet effectively kills, is sold at one low price as stated in the article “Price may be a problem as Galaxy Tab takes on iPad”, published Thursday November 11 2010 by Barry Levine, newsfactor.com, Yahoo! News.

Apple’s strategy thus far to stave of this frontal attack has been offer the Apple iPad bundled with a Mi-Fi and Data Plan as stated in the article “Verizon Wireless, AT&T to start selling the iPad”, published Thursday October 14, 2010 11:53 am ET by Ben Patterson, Yahoo! News.

Coupled with the “success” of subscriptions of the Apple iPad, coming in at five hundred thousand (500,000) units and counting onwards based on the article “Over 500,000 iPads on AT&T Network: CEO”, published Tuesday September 21, 2010 6:34 pm ET, NEW YORK (AFP), Yahoo! News, its success may be setting a rather challenging bar for the Samsung Galaxy horde to beat.

So far the challengers have all been Google Android based Tablets, but it seems that Microsoft COO Steve Ballmer’s Love Potion No. 9 (1992) has scented on tablets running Windows 7, now smelling of the rosy scent that will also make the Windows Phone 7 OS a success in the long haul. Apple is not the only company with a device that is a winner due to its tight integration, and the sudden interest, if the news from EnGadget is to believed, in the HP Slate 500 as suggested in the article “Hewlett-Packard runs out of Slates”, published November 15, 2010 10:09 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

A Business Tablet, indicating that people do actually want to do work with Microsoft Office Suite, possibly communicating over Microsoft Lync (?) as stated in the article “Microsoft's Lync arrives, gets a Gates cameo”, published November 17, 2010 9:27 AM PST by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News - Microsoft.

Really?

The Windows 7 Professional 8.9" tablet device with a Intel atom Z540 Processor 1.88Ghz 512Kb L2 cache with a 2GB DDR2 667MHz on board memory and 64 GB SSD Hard Drive with VGA front facing web cam, 3MB outward facing camera packs Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), Bluetooth, USB and a docking cradle with HDMI (High Definition Media Input), USB ports and Audio Aux Jack for hands free operation will be a hit.

Already the pre-orders increase, from five thousand (5000) to nine thousand (9000) units, an increase of four thousand (4000) units, based on the EnGadget Report of HP’s Sales Department surprise at the “extraordinary demand” for their tablets, suggest that they will see economy-of-scale being achieved simply by selling more tablets.

Not to mention possible Christmas bonuses for the lucky line employees that EnGadget claims may be re-employed. Note people, this is EnGadget’s claim reiterated on CNET; rarely do I trust gadget crazy trolls, if ONLY that they help to prove my point, that being demand for tablets in general, irregardless of OS, is strong.

Microsoft COO Steve Ballmer need not have been so nervous earlier in  CES (Computer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada, a device which even CNET described as being more of a laptop replacement than a genuine bona fide tablet as stated in the article “HP Slate more NetBook than iPad”, published April 19, 2010 11:25 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News - Nanotech - The Circuits Blog, which, depending on how you look at the glass with water half way to the top, is a positive sign of its early success.

Biodiversity is the key here. Biotechnology and Biology, say hello to Silicon Valley [shaking hands]. Add Gorilla Glass and a convenient holding pouch and the Tablet made for business becomes a Consumer device as Christmas or at least Black Thursday, the alleged price drop day, as we Jamaicans say, “nice again”; Jamaicans are the rough and tumble types and as such their gadgets need to be of a similar caliber.

So expect Laptops and Netbooks to still be the device of choice as the crazy Americans (crazy in a good way!!) mop up the tablet, leaving the Netbooks and Laptops to drop in price as per the prognostications of Micron, a NetBook manufacturer as stated in the article “Micron: Apple iPad, tablets ding PC, Notebook demand”, published October 8, 2010, 7:42am PDT by Larry Dignan, Between the Lines, ZDNet

Then there is Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn stunning confirmation of a 50% drop in sales in NetBooks and Laptops in his Best Buy Retail chain as stated in the article “Best Buy CEO; iPad cannibalizing Laptop Sales by up to 50 percent”, published Friday September 17 2010, 6:10 am ET by Chloe Albanesius, PC Magazine, Yahoo! News.

This is not even mentioning increasing interest shown in tablets by competing retailers Target and Wal-Mart, which I shall never visit, as I dislike such abnormally large Temples built to Shopping. Sold!

A similar blessing is also bestowed by the Tablet Gods on the Windows 7 Dell Inspiron Duo, the back flip form factor for a tablet, now coming in at a competitively priced US$549 as stated in the article “Dell Duo tablet set at US$549”, published November 18, 2010 10:51 AM PST by Brooke Crothers, CNET News Nanotech - The Circuits Blog. If the limited edition Toshiba Libretto as stated in the article “Toshiba Libretto W100 sells out at Amazon, really was a limited”, published Wednesday August 18 2010 by EnGadget.

Then there is the doubtful Thomas Microsoft Courier as stated in the article “Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet”, Gizmodo and the as yet-to-be-seen-in-the-wild ViewSonic ViewPad as stated in the article “ViewSonic Introduces Two Tablets”, published Monday November 1, 2010 5:25 pm ET by Melissa J. Perenson, Yahoo! News and the article “ViewSonic outs Android ViewPad 7”, published August 27, 2010 4:54 PM PDT by Donald Bell, CNET News – Crave.

If they were to join the Tablet party, it would effectively be the Star Wars | The Force Unleashed upon the innocent citizens of America and most importantly, against the White Unicorn, that being the Apple iPad. At which point the Tablet Wars, would have begun…………