07 January 2010 | Author: L. Sutherland Head of Media Content

Microsoft and HP hope to clash horns with Apple

Microsoft and HP have launched a slate computer ahead of the much anticipated and rumoured unveiling of a similar device by Apple. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the HP device at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in a move designed to steal thunder and grab headlines.

As soon as Apple's iPhone looked set to shake up the mobile playing field back in 2007, it was clear that the computer company was moving away from its niche territory and towards the mainstream. Unsurprisingly, the game-changing device raised hackles across the industry and since then the skirmishes between software giant Microsoft and Apple have intensified exponentially.

As the iPhone's pole position continues to be (so far unsuccessfully) challenged by other major players such as Google and Microsoft, Apple is of course under attack in other areas too. And the release of the slate from Microsoft and HP ahead of the suspected similar release by Apple later this month just goes to show that the war is set to be waged on all fronts.

Tablet computers could fill the ever-closing gap between smarthphones and personal computers, although their place in the market is being much contested by industry players the world over.

The slate from HP has garnered typically mixed reactions thus far, with Paul Miller, senior associate editor of technology website Engadget telling the BBC: "What we saw confirmed my worst suspicions that this is your standard Microsoft software in a slate form.

"It's an interesting product in itself but Microsoft could have gone further. It's not anything new in terms of software and that is what you really need to make a device like this make people want to buy it."

Whether Apple, a brand well known for its design and unusual approach, can snatch the headlines and win consumer backing with a potential tablet of its own remains to be seen. But either way, it looks certain that there will be no love lost between the major computing players in 2010 as the battle for the spending power of a recession-bashed consumer base.

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