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Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman has big plans for the ailing computer company. And those plans start with a new Windows 8-powered tablet by year’s end.
Speaking at a Wall Street Journal event on Thursday, Whitman confirmed that HP is once again testing the tablet market waters. Its last attempt, the WebOS-running TouchPad, was such an unmitigated failure it had to be led out back and shot just two months into its production run. The new tablet, according to Whitman, won’t compete head-to-head with the iPad, but rather, it will be marketed to enterprise clients and feature a stronger focus on security and management features. No other details on pricing or availability were released. [WSJ via BGR]
Image: The AP
I would have thought that HP had learnt from the Touchpad that if the price is right it will sell. Making another tablet aimed at a small market segment (accompanied undoubtedly by a higher price due as it is a niche market) isn’t going to be as successful as say, a well-priced mass-market tablet. I’m willing to bet a large chunk of the R&D budget for the Touchpad was spent on getting WebOS to run on it (and to cover the costs of buying WebOS) – the Touchpad had decent specs, just shoehorn ICS onto it and sell it for £300 and you’d have a market leader I am sure.
I would definately buy a HP branded win7 slate instead of an iPad.. if the price is lower that that of iPad.