The HP Slate was first shown off last Janauary — in Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's hands. In May after Palm was acquired by HP, we all thought that Windows 7 was getting nixed and would be replaced with Palm's mobile operating system — webOS. Guess what? The Slate is back, and it's still running Windows 7.

Everyone knows that a full desktop OS squeezed into a tablet doesn't work, so why is HP still doing the same thing Microsoft has tried to do for years without success? The reason the iPad is such a runaway success is because it runs on a mobile OS. It's the same reason why Android has a good chance to be a competitive tablet OS as well. The tablet experience is a simplified experience — tailored for touch.

HP seems to be aiming for a different market than the mainstream hipster with its Slate 500 tablet PC — the business and enterprise one. Is there a market for that? If you say so, HP. It looks like HP will be going head-to-head with RIM's PlayBook. Couldn't HP have optimized the much better webOS for the business users?

HP's Slate 500 is available now for $800 and features include what you would expect from a standard netbook: a 1.86Ghz Intel Atom processor, 64GB of flash storage, 2GB of RAM and one USB. It has an 8.9-inch screen and can run up to 5 hours on its battery.

Anyone excited?

CrunchGear, via Computerworld