Begun, The Tablet Wars Have: HP’s Slate Wants To Undercut The iPad

Even if you hate Apple, you can’t deny they set the tone. The WSJ reports that while HP announced their Slate first, they waited for the iPad unveil to make changes, like the price& – sh;which they plan to undercut.

HP wants to come in under $US630 for their full Windows 7 Slate. A tall order, considering that even Asus and MSI, skilled as they are in the art of undercutting, furrowed their collective brows at the iPad’s cheaper-than-expected pricing.

And apparently Acer’s already backtracking on their promise not to make iPad competitors, with Sumit Agnihotry, a marketing veep at Acer telling the WSJ that working on stuff in between a phone and laptop, and that “Acer plans to introduce possibly more iPad-like devices.” Then there’s Dell, who found via consumer research what they really want is a five-inch slate for browsing. So voila. Let’s not forget JooJoo or Lenovo, either. And Super Kindle!

Oh, this is going to be a fucking mess. [WSJ]