HP’s ‘slate’ device is shaping up to be a strong contender in the tablet market (if and when it’s released), with HP’s most recent announcement focusing on the built-in Flash support, a clear dig at the iPad’s failure to support the popular technology.
As part of a joint video announcement between HP and Adobe, Alan Tam (Adobe Flash Product Marketing), highlights how pervasive the use of flash is on the web, with 75% of videos and no less than 85% of Alexa 100 (rankings of the most popular sites on the web) utilising Flash elements or players. With such a strong usage base the HP slate may well be strongly positioned to directly compete with the iPad, at least when it comes to web browsing.
Of course the slate isn’t ideal, aside from the flashy video HP have created to market their new device, the interface is still windows based, with large buttons and what appears to be a fairly clunky interface, but then maybe that’s the price to pay for flash support.
