Here come the slates. Send in the slates. Todd Bradley, EVP, Personal Systems Group, for HP just announced that their Windows 7 tablets will arrive “this Fall” — something we suspected after said slates showed up on HP’s website with SKU numbers and all. The rumored (and almost certainly real) webOS slates were touched on tangentially, with the non-answer that we can expect a “family” of slate devices. Jon Rubinstein pretty much confirmed that they’re coming out, but wouldn’t give any dates.
The Windows 7 tablets, supposedly called Slate 500s, will support pen and finger input, and according to Rubinstein are going to be targeted at the enterprise sector — a strategy we expected after reports of the Slate’s death were shown to be exaggerated, and the PalmPad trademark was filed for.
[Note: this post originally read that webOS slates were arriving this Fall. Not the case. In fact, webOS 2.0 will be arriving later this year, not a tablet based on that OS. Sorry for any confusion. The perpetrator of this grievous and far-felt error is being strapped into the pain machine from The Princess Bride as I type this.]