The Android HP Slate 7 might signal good news for Microsoft

About a year ago, I had bought a newly released Nexus 7 and wrote a review on it. The "Q88 Tablet " version of that review was: "Why would you not find the additional money and buy an iPad?"When HP announced the release of the Jelly Bean HP Slate 7, I bought one to have a look at.

But events of the past year have encouraged me to take a more nuanced view with regards to the Slate 7 and its sibling low-end Android tablets. Specifically, just like Android phones are now mature and decent enough to play well in the market against the iPhone, Android tablets are now good enough to hold their own in the tablet market against the iPad.

The iPad is still the best tablet on the market, and if you happen to have the available cash, it's still the one to buy. However, if you're definitely not going to buy an iPad (or even a Windows tablet, which we'll come to), buying a Slate 7 actually is good value for money. FineIn the US, the 8GB HP Slate 7 can be yours for $170. (In the UK, I paid £129, including VAT.)Also in the UK, the 16GB Nexus 7 can be yours for $200.cdF34ds

If you're in the market for a $200 tablet, both of these are fine. They're both basically the same device. The HP has the edge on build quality, and also has a rear-facing camera and expandable storage, whereas the Nexus doesn't. The Nexus also has a higher-resolution screen, and the Slate's screen is decidedly murky. Seeing as the whole point of a tablet is the screen, that counts for something.So, sure — it's fine. The Slate 7 is "fine". And the Nexus 7 is also fine.

With regards to cheapo Q88 Android Tablet , we need to think of a couple of things. Whilst you have been able buy dirt cheap Android tablets for very little money, the market now has the option of two devices that are very good. Three, if you include the Kindle Fire, which for this argument we might as well do.

Unless we now live in a parallel universe, where market forces don't apply, downward price pressure on decent Android tablets now seems like a certainty. As consumers, we can now look forward to average selling prices (ASPs) on low-end Android devices drifting lower.

HP appears to have deliberately priced the Slate 7 to be price competitive with the Nexus 7. That tells us how old school OEMs are thinking about this new market opportunity. Spoiler: They're looking at it in exactly the same way that they've been looking at the PC market.

Make them smaller and use an x86 chip rather than ARM, and you can likely trim the price, but can you get a 7-inch BOXCHIP Android Tablet down to a street price of $170? My ZDNet colleague Ed Bott recently wrote up the Acer Iconia W3-810 tablet, which leaked on Amazon. This is an 8.1-inch Atom-based tablet. Probably yours for $380.

There's no way that x86-based Windows tablets are going to end up at $150-ish anytime soon, which suggests to me a market where you end up with $150-ish Android tablets at the low end, and a premium sector that's made up of iPads and Windows tablets at round $400-ish

HP to launch 10 inch Tegra 4 quad core Android tablet?

HP has just launched its first Q88 Tablet, the Slate 7, to a mediocre response from both consumers as well as critics.Undeterred by this (or the fact that its very first tablet, the webOS-based TouchPad, bombed in the market as well), HP seems to have lined up a new Android tablet in the next few months.

It’s expected to be a fairly high end tablet, and is presumably trying to hedge against the rapidly declining PC market with a 10 inch tablet.TabTech, a German tech site that focuses on tablet related news, has discovered the possible existence of a 10 inch HP Android tablet that’s called the ‘HP Slate Book 10 x 2’.

This discovery has been possible because the renowned AnTuTu benchmarking tool’s database has an entry with this so-called Slate Book from HP.

Q88 Android Tablet goes on to reckon that the Slate Book will have a 10 inch display and a quad core Nvidia Tegra 4 processor. Its AnTuTu listing shows that it is loaded with Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 right now, but that may change in the coming months with the impending launch of Android Key Lime Pie v5.0.

HP’s ventures into the tablet market have been misguided and hapless so far, to say the least. Perhaps a more focused and dedicated marketing approach towards the Slate Book Android tablet may change their fortunes, but don’t count on it!dsDSSD43F

I think we’ll initially have some kind of dock for the BOXCHIP Android Tablet to pull this off this kind of streaming, but not for long. Folks are used to using a remote control, and will want to hold the device as a kind of “super remote.” With improvements in inductive charging (another technology being driven by Qualcomm) and wireless video broadcasting, your tablet or smartphone will do everything you need from the couch, no cables needed.