With Slate 6 and 7, HP looks to re-invigorate its smart phone efforts
Later today, Hewlett-Packard will take the wraps off a pair of new phablets, 聽to the tech site Re/code.聽
The devices, the Slate 6 and Slate 7 (the numbers refer to their 6- and 7-inch screen footprint) fall somewhere between the size of a traditional tablet and a smart phone. Both will be with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel one on the back; and both will run Google's Android Jellybean 4.2 mobile operating system. Release date is expected to be sometime next month.聽
But North American and European consumers shouldn't get too excited: For now, the Slate 6 and 7 are destined solely for India. In an interview with Re/code,聽Ron Coughlin, the vice-president for the consumer PC business at HP, said the decision was based on what the company sees as a lot of untapped demand.聽
"We see a need in India that we can meet," he told Re/code. "Consumers are looking for a way to consolidate devices. We think there鈥檚 an opportunity to enter a growing market where there鈥檚 an unmet need."聽
This is not HP's first foray into the smart phone market. In 2010, the company 聽the device-maker Palm, and a small handful of smart phones powered by webOS. But the phones received little traction on the market, and eventually HP sold off the webOS brand to LG, which it would use the operating system in its own products, including the popular LG line of "smart" TV sets.聽
Asked by Re/code whether the Slate 6 and 7 would find their way to other countries, Mr. Coughlin demurred.聽
"I won鈥檛 say where or when, but you can expect us to do more in the coming months," he . "We鈥檒l be talking about this in a more expansive way. But right now we鈥檙e focused on a successful launch in India."聽
