On the eve of the Apple tablet, HP offers info on its "Slate"

HP pulled the wraps off all sorts of new gear at CES including the tm2 convertible tablet notebook, but probably the most interesting tidbit was allowing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to show off the coming Slate tablet computer in his CES keynote for the first time The Slate certainly looked nice up on stage and a few more bits about it have been offered up by HP CTO Phil McKinney.



The most interesting features of the device when Ballmer showed it off were the eBook and movie player modes. The modes are in reality just applications that run within Windows and can be ran with the start menu taking away from of the coolness that some may have thought went along with the features.

The Slate runs Windows 7, which you could have guessed given the introduction by Ballmer. McKinney claims it will hit market in 2010, but didn’t give a specific date. The device is also said to sell for "much less" than $1664 ($US1500) when it hits. I am betting HP is waiting to see what price the long rumored Apple tablet comes in at and will then price its Slate accordingly.