The Other HP Slate Runs On Android
Last night, during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off a prototype for a new HP Slate computer running on Windows 7. It was supposed to be an Apple-stealing moment and it was Microsoft's moment …
Context & Ripple Effects
Two days after Microsoft and H.P. coordinated their timing so the Slate would be revealed ahead of Apple's still-unannounced tablet (the pre-CES reveal plan), Ballmer put a Windows 7 Slate prototype on stage at his keynote. The framing was that H.P.'s device would carry Microsoft's answer into the tablet race.
This report muddies that story: a second Slate device is rumored to run Android rather than Windows 7. The claim is unconfirmed, but it lands at a delicate moment — Microsoft's own mobile chief Robbie Bach said this same week that Google's handset push would be 'very difficult' because partners might shun its software, making even a rumored Android defection by its marquee OEM awkward.
First-order effects
- H.P. enters the slate category with a hedge built in: one device aligned with Ballmer's keynote narrative and a rumored second running Android, meaning the Windows 7 demo no longer represents H.P.'s full tablet position.
- Apple's anticipated tablet now potentially faces two operating-system answers from a single hardware partner rather than one unified Windows-based rival.
Second-order effects
- Google gets an OEM foothold in the slate form factor without having announced a tablet platform of its own, pressuring Microsoft to defend Windows 7 as a touch OS it was never designed to be.
- If H.P. ships both variants, pricing and positioning between its own Windows and Android Slates becomes the comparison reviewers reach for first — an internal cannibalization problem before any external competitor enters.
Third-order effects
- OEMs treating new form factors as multi-OS bets rather than defaulting to Windows would erode the assumption that Microsoft's ecosystem ships automatically with every major device class — exactly the partner-shunning dynamic Bach warned about for Google, redirected at Redmond.
The trend: PC makers are beginning to hedge across operating systems on emerging form factors like slates instead of assuming Windows by default.