Hewlett-Packard announced on Friday that its first-ever tablet is now available to the public through the manufacturer's website for $799. The tablet goes by the name of the Slate 500, and while many might see it as HP's answer to Apple's iPad, it is not. That is not to say that HP doesn't have any tricks up its sleeve to compete against the iPad in the future, however.

The Slate 500 is aimed at the business demographic, although HP did not plan it that way initially. HP announced its plans to develop the Slate 500 in January of this year. At that time, it was destined to be a tablet aimed at the standard consumer sector. In April, however, HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion. The acquisition pushed HP to change gears and aim its focus with the Slate 500's development toward business customers instead. HP's director of worldwide business notebook marketing, Carol Hess-Nickels, claimed that the Slate 500 should satisfy the needs of professionals familiar with office productivity applications and the Windows operating system who are looking for a portable handheld device.

As of right now, the Slate 500 is only available in the United States, although HP may expand its availability to other customers around the globe. The tablet comes with a 1.68 GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor and 2 GB of RAM. Storage is handled by a 64 GB solid-state drive. Graphics are supported by an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 chip. 

The tablet's battery life is said to hover around five hours on a full charge. Its dock handles recharging duties, and also houses connectivity options in the form of a USB port, a headphone jack, and a HDMI port. Another added feature of the Slate 500 is its inclusion of two integrated cameras that come in handy for video conferencing and taking photos. The front of the tablet houses a VGA camera, while the back houses one of the 3-megapixel variety. 

Portability is a major selling point for the Slate 500, as it weighs just 1.5 pounds and measures 9.21 inches wide by 5.91 inches tall by 0.58 inches wide. Its 8.9-inch touchscreen display makes it an ideal tool for taking inventory, recording transactions, and performing other business-related duties, and it comes with a HP Slate digital pen for input. Another business-related feature of the Slate 500 is its virtual private network support that allows professionals to connect to their corporation's networks. The tablet also comes equipped with Bluetooth and 802.11n integrated Wi-Fi.

HP's release of the Slate 500 should give it a nice head start versus its other competitor in the business tablet world, the Cisco Cius. The Cius has not been shipped yet, and the Android-based tablet will feature a 7-inch display. 

The Slate 500's release does come after the ever-present iPad. The iPad, however, is seen as more of a consumer-based tablet, despite it being used by some businesses. To rival the iPad, HP plans to release a tablet based on the WebOS mobile software sometime in 2011.

For more on this topic, visit the PC World story.

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