Photo: HP

In preempting Apple’s big iPad announcement, Microsoft and HP announced a Slate PC they have been collaborating on. Steve Ballmer at CES announced the device during Microsoft’s press conference. It will be running a traditional version of Windows 7 with some slight modifications to introduce limited multitouch functionality.

The Windows 7 Shoe-in

It seems every Slate PC aims to tackle the same issues: eBook reading, media playback, an improving browsing experience as well as some capacity for gaming. To this respect, one must question why HP and Windows have adopted the approach they have. Instead of creating a stand alone OS – or at the very least a legitimately annotated one ala Windows 7 Slate – they’ve built this form factor to Windows 7 specifications. This means this is a touch-based device glued to an operating system originally built for mouse and keyboard use, as opposed to a touch-based device with a proprietary touch-based interface.

Looks and Vital Statistics

Aesthetically, the Slate PC looks decent. With the little data that’s been gathered so far, and from judging from screenshots, its seemingly wide-screen aspect ratio makes it tailor-made for media viewing, unlike the competition. Being in prototype mode, though, nobody from the media has managed to get hands on time with it and a release date has been tentatively scheduled for “some time in 2010″. The addition of a USB 2.0 slot as well as an onboard camera which seemed a no-brainer in a pre iPad world now seem to big, albeit unexpected, notches in HP’s favour.

Premature Birth?

While many dismissed this as quick cash in on HP’s part much to HP’s protestations, the future of this Slate PC is unclear. It just seems, given Microsoft’s oft-rumoured Courier and Apple’s announcement, building what is essentially a Windows 7 device is both underwhelming and shortsighted. We may be wrong, still, though.