HP Thursday announced a new $700 Windows 7 business tablet, underlining its renewed commitment to the business end-user computing market. The new HP Slate 2 Tablet PC is an upgrade to its original Slate, now more than a year old. Whether this new tablet does better than that original will depend in large part on how HP promotes it. Unfortunately, HP has a long history of developing excellent products and then failing to market them.

This tablet is potentially exciting for several reasons. First, rather than being a consumer product like the Apple iPad or Android machines that then comes into offices in the briefcases of individuals, this is designed to support business needs. It runs Windows, which means it can run your company’s entire desktop image if you desire. It has chip-level security, which is always more secure than software-based security, and BIOS support for Computrace Pro to allow users to delete files remotely to protect sensitive files if the tablet is lost or stolen.

The inductive touch screen can be used with either a finger or an inductive pen, which HP provides. The basic unit weighs 1.5 pounds, which is reasonable, and has an 8.5-inch diagonal screen. Under the hood it has an Intel Atom Z670 processor with mSATA SSM technology, which HP says delivers faster boot times. HP claims six-hour battery life, but these claims in general tend to be exaggerated.

HP offers two optional cases. One comes with a Bluetooth keyboard and turns the tablet into a small desktop when opened up. The other is specifically for retail use and includes a built-in bar code reader.

These and a brief user quote from a doctor give broad hints as to the markets HP is aiming at: general business use, retail, and medical providers, where doctors and nurses work on their feet away from their desks much of the time.

If the new tablet is as good as it sounds, and if HP markets it aggressively into its business customers, it has a major opportunity to become the Apple of business mobile computing. The business market is wide open, with pent-up demand. Yes Apple has a business apps store and makes some effort to sell to businesses. But the iPad is a consumer device, not designed for business. Adopting it means downloading apps to try to replicate your desktop image, or significant parts of it. And few if any companies, including Macintosh shops, have in-house expertise in the iOS environment, so support becomes difficult. And the iPad has nothing like the security features built into the Slate 2. Ditto for the Android tablets. The RIM Playbook is focused on the business market, but its presence has been less than overwhelming.

None of the other business laptop makers have shown any sign of bringing out a tablet. Presumably they are waiting for Windows 8. This gives HP the opportunity to steal the market and then sell a Win 8 upgrade a year from now. What HP really needs to do that, presuming that the Slate 2 operates as advertised, is a Steve Jobs-like spokesperson who can generate excitement in the business market and a concerted sales effort to get them into the hands of key influencers in its customer base and the business market in general.

Services Angle

Tablets are the ideal user device for consuming services. With its Windows environment and advanced and chip-level security, the Slate 2 could be the answer for consuming business services both from the cloud and from private corporate clouds. It certainly deserves a close look, particularly for IT shops under pressure from management to provide support for tablets.