HP saw the writing on the wall and knew it had to make a move into the smartphone market to maintain relevance in the global IT market. After its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm and the Palm webOS, some pundits speculated that it would not deliver a Windows 7-based slate computer now that it had acquired its own.
But as Hardware Central reports, HP will attempt to have the best of both worlds by using the Windows 7-based slates for its enterprise line and the Palm webOS for its consumer tablet PCs and smartphones.
“We will ship the Windows slate with Windows 7 to the enterprise,” HP’s Phil McKinney said during a Q&A session following his talk here at the AlwaysOn conference at Stanford University on Wednesday. “The webOS is for our consumer slate.”
The market for tablet/slate devices has exploded with the arrival of Apple’s iPad, which has already sold millions of units and continues to sell them basically as fast as the company can make them. While Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) has marketed the iPad to consumers there hasn’t been much slate activity on the enterprise side except in niche areas where the devices have been used for years.
PALO ALTO, Calif.– HP executive Phil McKinney said that, contrary to reports, HP hasn’t given up on the Windows 7-based slate or tablet computer that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January.
Following HP’s blockbuster $1.2 billion purchase of Palm earlier this year, there was wide speculation the company was ready to dump Windows 7 in favor of a slate line based on Palm’s webOS.
HP (NYSE: HPQ) did in fact say at the time of the Palm acquisition that it planned to extend webOS beyond smartphones to slate devices.
But McKinney, CTO of HP’s Personal Systems Group, made it clear the company is still committed to Windows.