HP Confirms Slate Pricing

As the arrival of "pad computing" approaches (Apple's iPad will be available April 3), other companies that have been announcing similar solutions are beginning to confirm their specs and prices.

One of the more intriguing non-Apple devices is the HP Slate. The device is confirmed to run Windows 7, have USB ports, a memory card reader, support Flash (unlike the iPad) and have a webcam. Those are all nice features and definitely things that the iPad is known to not have.

The price from HP will be in the $550 neighborhood which isn't outrageous.

I'm still wondering exactly where these devices will fit into our everyday usage. Tablet PC's with no keyboard have been around for a few years now and are still a niche product, especially the ones with no keyboard. I have an iPod Touch and I like it, but I don't think that I'd want it to be my primary mobile computing device, especially since my MacBook Pro isn't that hard to carry. My plan is to definitely get into the Pad/Slate fad but I'm really interested to see where all of this goes.