14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Apple's fabled iPad launched and revealed the world-shaking truth that it has no Flash support (which doesn't seem to have hampered pre-orders in any way), support for Flash playback has been the main element in the marketing strategies of companies that released, or will release, competing products. HP, as one of the first to unveil its own such product, is no exception but now seems to have more information to offer than a few teaser videos. It seems that Spanish site Clipset managed to somehow find out when the HP Slate will make its debut.
According to the report, HP will be officially introducing its tablet sometime in June, with retail availability in Europe expected before September.
This doesn't exactly say when the product will start selling in the US, but it will likely be sooner than that. As for the actual product specs, the tablet will be running an Intel Atom CPU, will have full support for Adobe Flash and will also boast a memory card reader, USB connectivity and a back-mounted webcam.
Ever since it revealed it, HP has been advertising its device as an excellent competitor for the iPad, exploiting every possible downside of the Apple tablet. Design and functionality were covered through integration of Flash support and USB connectivity, but there remains one area that may make the difference between good and bad marketing performance: the price.
In this case, HP seems to have done well enough, supposedly intending to sell its slate for only 400 Euro (about $540). All that remains is for HP to make sure that there is enough content for the gadget to take advantage of.
End-users that are interested in an actual demonstration of the device may watch one of the previously released videos of the slate's multimedia capabilities, which can be found here.