Could Microsoft be the big loser in the HP-Palm deal? Hewlett-Packard is still promoting Windows 7 on collateral that discusses its up-and-coming tablet device, but some are betting HP will roll out its slate with webOS after its Palm acquisition.
In fact, news reports naming unidentified sources say HP plans to abandon Windows 7, the operating system that HP vice president and CTO Phil McKinney in March called “a big bonus” for the tablet because it offers full Adobe Flash support (unlike the iPad). McKinney’s March 8 post remains on the site, leaving some to wonder if a final decision has been made about ending the partnership with Microsoft.
But Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, is hearing something yet different: the Slate as we know it is dead. Though there are still conflicting reports, and HP has not yet publicly confirmed the Slate’s demise, Enderle said he has heard that the Slate was simply too slow in testing and would have been an “ugly” competitor to the iPad.
“The touch interface on the Slate wasn’t working well. The device wasn’t performing the way it needed to perform. HP wanted to put Windows Mobile 7 on the Slate, but Microsoft said no,” Enderle said. “Given that, my expectation is for HP to bring a product to market that’s based on the webOS.”
As Enderle understands it, Palm has a tablet device that’s “almost fully cooked and ready to go.” The challenge, of course, for Palm is that there aren’t many applications in the Palm app store. However, Enderle noted, in terms of a platform on which developers can build, webOS, Android and the Mac OS are the only three that are fully cooked.
“Palm’s problem is going to be attracting application developers. Right now those guys are focused pretty heavily…