The VAR Guy

In a  Hewlett-Packard video traveling fast across the Internet, HP’s CTO Phil McKinney demonstrates and explains the features of the HP Slate while talking up the history of its creation. It was 5 years in the making, something that McKinney stresses since HP wants people to know that they in no way wanted to take a page out of the Apple playbook. The slate will be running Windows 7, so how does that position itself against confirmation that Apple’s Tablet will be running something iPhone-esque? Here’s the deal…

The proof of Apple’s iPhone-based tablet was big news on CNBC. Terry McGraw, McGraw-Hill’s CEO has confirmed existence of the OS on the Tablet; noting that their textbooks will be on the Apple Tablet .

We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so [software, books, etc...] will be transferable…

You can watch it here, and just skip to 2 minutes and  50 seconds into the video for the spoilers, but really, it’s nothing we didn’t know already.

Meanwhile, the HP video feature here shows a much more ‘computer’ like approach to the tablet:

It’s running Windows 7, which means that it’ll run your standard Windows software. That means productivity suites like Office, and nearly anything else you normally do with your PC can apply. That, arguably, is a more ‘open’ approach to Tablet computing.

But Apple’s Tablet will feature a version of iPhone OS. And while the iPhone operating system is incredibly good at what it does for a phone, it seems like Apple might be limiting itself if they just do a jumbo-size version of the iPhone. Apple’s devices tend to be heavily involved with media consumption, and the Table is no exception. It’s clearly been slated for e-books, movies and the web.

Business Touch?

But what about work? With the iWork touch rumors, and the healthcare rumors I’d like to believe that the Tablet will have a special place for the bloggers and workers of the world. I would put money on the fact that in every way, Apple’s tablet will be tailored beyond belief for the most smooth and easy media consumption that ever existed, while HP’s will require you to do it the Windows way.

And, of course, I realize there are a range of additional tablet makers in the market — everyone from big names like Lenovo and Dell to upstarts like Emperor Linux. But these guys are making tablet computer with attached keyboards. I’m more interested in tablets that exist to be functional without them permanently attached.

But here’s bottom line, all speculation aside: If I can’t pack up my tablet and pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard and blog on the go, I’m not sure I’ll be that interested. I have no doubts I can already do that with HP’s tablet. But I have a enough web-browsing, e-book reading, MP3 playing gadgets in my house. After the Steve Jobs reality distortion field collapses, are we going to have something really different? Something that will change the way we work and play?

The Apple event is live Today (January 27th) at 1PM EST / 10AM PST. Expect big things.

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