It’s very different from an iPad and there will probably be very, very few people who will want it but there will be some (i.e. it will be about as successful a

It’s very different from an iPad and there will probably be very, very few people who will want it but there will be some (i.e. it will be about as successful as all other tablet PCs of the last decade). If HP wants to beat the iPad – that’s how Ballmer framed it, HP doesn’t seem to see it that way – this is an unmitigated disaster. The HP Slate has potential to be a nice niche product, not to beat the iPad. Or, to put it in another way, the iPad and iPad-class devices have a shot at changing the future of computing, this has not.