HP Scrambling to Meet Demand for Windows Slate
HP is struggling to meet demand for its newly available Slate PC.
It's been a long and winding road for HP's Slate 500. First announced at CES in January, HP was quiet about a release date for the product and it was eventually shelved, only to be revived a few months later as a enterprise-only device. The company officially launched the Slate 500 last month and it seems demand for the product has taken HP by surprise.
Despite its high price-tag, pre-orders for the $800 Slate have been delayed after HP was hit with "extraordinary demand" for the device. Originally expected to arrive on November 12, customers with pre-orders are reporting word of a 10- to 15-day delay. HP is telling customers that they don't have enough "on-hand stock" to fill orders and have had to reroute orders to manufacturing so they can build more devices.
"Due to high demand on the portable system you have selected we will not be able to fulfill the order from on hand stock, therefore we have routed your order to manufacturing for your product to be built. The average lead time to get these portables ready to ship may vary from 10 to 15 business days."
While a 15-day delay may not sound like much, it's important to note that those receiving such emails from HP ordered their Slates at the earliest opportunity. Ghengis Kent, who received the email above, says he ordered his Slate 500 on October 25, just a few days after HP made the device available for purchase. People ordering today are being told that it will be six weeks before their Slate even ships.
So HP is having problems keeping up with demand for the Slate 500, but just how many people have put in orders for the device? One insider spoke to Engadget and said that HP ordered an initial production run of 5,000 devices but received 9,000 pre-orders. The source said that HP has had to re-hire production workers and is currently attempting to placate angry customers by offering them a discount of over $100.
Source: Maximum PC, Tom's Hardware, Engadget
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thats pretty cool. if i had the money id def buy one
I honestly hope this tablet does well - and will eventually make it's way toward the public retail side. (for a cheaper price, of course..)
What happen with HP using WebOS on its tablets. What a whimsical move by HP, spend 2 billion on Palm, and then just store it in the garage.
So it seems there is a market for tablets not running some wussified consumer oriented OS.
I just ordered one on 11/13 the estimated delivery date is 12/11 I hope that date does not slide!
What happen with HP using WebOS on its tablets. What a whimsical move by HP, spend 2 billion on Palm, and then just store it in the garage.
This tablet was in the works long before HP bought Palm, and was designed to run Windows. Thus it's no surprise that it was released long before any WebOS device.
They've announced that there will be a number of WebOS devices (phones, tablets and printers) released next year. Don't hold your breath though - these things take time.
I hope it has no problems.
Main takeaway from this article? The Slate is already $100 more than necessary for HP to make a profit.
This tablet was in the works long before HP bought Palm, and was designed to run Windows. Thus it's no surprise that it was released long before any WebOS device. They've announced that there will be a number of WebOS devices (phones, tablets and printers) released next year. Don't hold your breath though - these things take time.
Yea but the WebOS technology was available long before they bought Palm....you know, the way they make business looks like they buy-and-sell off Craigslist....
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"HP Scrambling to Meet Demand for Windows Slate"
as in:
"we simply cannot meet the millions of pre-orders"
or
"holy crap!? there is actually demand for this thing? shit! we better get a factory actually making them or something!"
"According to Ubergizmo, HP only manufactured 5,000 units of the Tablet 500 and was caught off-guard after receiving 9,000 orders for the device, to the point where meeting demand required some retooling. "
While IPad sold 46,000 per day.....
HP slate's demands is this HIGHT.
Well, price is about right - but is it "magical"? xD
So it seems there is a market for tablets not running some wussified consumer oriented OS.
Not really... they sold 9,000 of these.... they made 5,000... barely a success story. They've been purchased by a small percentage of the die hard fans and HP employees.
Shitty battery life, high price, full-fledged OS on a netbook hardware = failure.
Not really... they sold 9,000 of these.... they made 5,000... barely a success story. They've been purchased by a small percentage of the die hard fans and HP employees.Shitty battery life, high price, full-fledged OS on a netbook hardware = failure.
This tablet was made for enterprises not for general availability, hence the full-fledged OS. Also netbooks come with a full-fledged OS.
High Price? Doesn't the 64Gb iPad costs $700? This is $100 dollars more expensive but it comes with a much more powerful CPU, GPU and twice the memory.
9,000? what a sad number.. hardly a large number to brag about.
9,000? what a sad number.. hardly a large number to brag about.
And how many corporate ipad sales are there? Oh right...zero because nothing meant for actual productivity works with the ipad. The Slate for $800 is purely for businesses, so I'd bet hands down 90% of those orders are enterprise users.
the specs are very cool and hence i feel it will be more productive, thats why its in demand.
Doesn't the 64Gb iPad costs $700? This is $100 dollars more expensive but it comes with a much more powerful CPU, GPU and twice the memory.
I would anyday spend 100 more to get the best hardware in a shiny case or not... i actually use my hardware rather than boosting my e-peen like some clueless peeps seems to do!
Can't wait to see these in the wild and get people's opinions and reviews. At $800, it's more than I want to drop on it unless I could really use it.
If it's good for doing work, and a little play outside of work, this could be a great purchase.
This tablet was made for enterprises not for general availability, hence the full-fledged OS. Also netbooks come with a full-fledged OS.High Price? Doesn't the 64Gb iPad costs $700? This is $100 dollars more expensive but it comes with a much more powerful CPU, GPU and twice the memory.
Nope, iPad's pricing is $499, $599, and $699 so that's a $400 starting price difference.
10 hours of battery life vs 4 hours of battery life... hmmmm
The whole point of the tablet is that it's mobile, you are carying it in your hands.
Having to carry a charger or being hooked up to power most of the time takes that "mobility" from the slate away... I might as well get a laptop.
Yes I am aware that netbooks come with full fledged OS, that's why they are not selling as well.
Having a more powerfull CPU means squat when your OS is not optimized for tablets.
Microsoft figured it out and so did HP, hence the Windows phone 7 and Web OS.
Slate is a test product - someone's pet project.... and what is a better prove than HP making only 5,000 units. They never expected it to be their main selling product.
Somehow these die hard fans cant not understand that... oh well, live goes on...
Nope, iPad's pricing is $499, $599, and $699 so that's a $400 starting price difference.
This slate comes with a 64GB SSD, to my knowledge the 64GB iPad costs $699, so $101 difference.
Yes I am aware that netbooks come with full fledged OS, that's why they are not selling as well.
Since when does quality has anything to do with sales? This means that MacBook line is really bad because worldwide they sell very little when compared to other companies.
Microsoft figured it out and so did HP, hence the Windows phone 7 and Web OS.
Yep, Microsoft developed WP7 because of tablets yet no WP7 tablet was even announced.
Slate is a test product - someone's pet project.... and what is a better prove than HP making only 5,000 units. They never expected it to be their main selling product.Somehow these die hard fans cant not understand that... oh well, live goes on...
To which part this tablet being made for enterprises didn't you understand? How many enterprises use the iPad?
Since when does quality has anything to do with sales?
Since when do netbooks represent quality? lol
Yep, Microsoft developed WP7 because of tablets yet no WP7 tablet was even announced.
Nope, they produced WP7 because their mobile OS sucked ass. Balmer noted that WP7 can be customized to be used on tablet devices. He did not want to speculate so I guess time will show. Iam betting on it, since Win 7 running on a sub par CPU is just stupid, performance wise and price wise.
To which part this tablet being made for enterprises didn't you understand? How many enterprises use the iPad?
More than they use the Slate...
5000 units and then they laid everyone off? That doesnt sound right, what company would make 5000 of anything and call it quits before pre-orders were even booked?
LOL. 9000 orders. This is a massive FLOP.
The iPad did 300k in ONE DAY. 10mil by end of 2010. 9000 orders 'scrambling to meet demand'? Don't make me laugh.
Enterprise?
"The company found that during the past eight months over 4,000 enterprises adopted the iPad and their deployments ranged from one iPad to over 1,000 devices in a single enterprise."
It is very safe to say that the iPad easily sold more to enterprises than HP's entire order log.
Let's say Apple made a tablet in complete secrecy, slapped a label that says "HP" on it, did no advertising, and sold it only on the HP website. Think it'll sell?
There is a group of Tablet PC fanatics who realize that real tablets can run real applications, like Onenote and Photoshop. Apparently they never got the memo that running real applications is now old-fashioned, and that we're supposed to go around looking at HTML5 videos. They never got the memo that styluses were old-fashioned, and that we should all be finger-painting in Photoshop, or typing with on-screen keyboards.
That's who's buying the Slate 500. There is simply no other product out there that's as light, as powerful, and as reasonably-priced.
Why would I want to run Photoshop off a tablet? First it's severely underpowered for the task, then there isn't enough screen real-estate to work on images/video, let alone enough space for pallets. If one wants to run full programs (and actually be productive and not just play around), specially photo/video editing software, a netbook is bare minimum at best, if at all. A tablet is best suited for personal websurfing & gaming, scheduling, point of sale, medical charts, and other less processor intensive tasks.
LOL. 9000 orders. This is a massive FLOP.The iPad did 300k in ONE DAY. 10mil by end of 2010. 9000 orders 'scrambling to meet demand'? Don't make me laugh.Enterprise?"The company found that during the past eight months over 4,000 enterprises adopted the iPad and their deployments ranged from one iPad to over 1,000 devices in a single enterprise."It is very safe to say that the iPad easily sold more to enterprises than HP's entire order log.
Those number were 8 months after the launch of the ipad.
Haters will hate.... Hey Vladislaus put another negative mark if that will make you feel better about your precious slate.
Those number were 8 months after the launch of the ipad.
I know. It's hard to believe. 300,000 iPads sold on launch day. But trust me, it is real. Look it up.
There is a group of Tablet PC fanatics who realize that real tablets can run real applications, like Onenote and Photoshop. Apparently they never got the memo that running real applications is now old-fashioned, and that we're supposed to go around looking at HTML5 videos. They never got the memo that styluses were old-fashioned, and that we should all be finger-painting in Photoshop, or typing with on-screen keyboards.
Apparently a group of Tablet PC users never figured out that a tablet is suited best for light duties such as web surfing, mobile gaming, and GPS. If I want to use real applications, I'll use a computer designed for it.
Apparently a group of Tablet PC users never figured out that a tablet is suited best for light duties such as web surfing, mobile gaming, and GPS. If I want to use real applications, I'll use a computer designed for it.
Apparently a group of non-Tablet PC users never realized that there are things that are best done with a pen -- not a mouse, and certainly not a finger. Things like marking up PDFs. Sketching digital art. Learning to write Chinese with instant handwriting-recognition feedback. Taking handwritten notes in class, with the audio *synchronized* to the notes that you wrote, so you can *search* the ink and *playback* the lecture exactly at the point you need.
"A tablet is suited best for light duties" is a straw man. We're not running AutoCAD or CATIA or Premiere or After Effects or climate modeling. We're running Photoshop, Onenote, PDF Annotator, and Sketchbook. Things that run quite well on an Atom -- and work best with a stylus-based tablet.