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Today Apple launched iPad, their new product for the tablet market and yesterday HP announced the availability details of Slate which is new Windows 7 slate PC, which was first demonstrated during the Microsoft CES 2010 keynote.

In an interview between Greta Schlender, a HP Spokesperson, and Phil McKinney, CTO of HP’s Personal Systems Group. McKinney explains the development and excitement around the Slate PC ahead of Apple’s iPad device. McKinney claims 2010 is the year of the Slate form factor due to “convergence of low cost, low powered processors” and Windows 7 which is a touch aware operating system allowing for third party applications to thrive.

So, this is the best time to compare the two devices. iPad is a 9.7-inch multi-touch capacitive display with 1024 x 768 pixel resolution. It is 0.5-inch thin and weighs 1.5 pounds with a 1GHz Apple A4 CPU. Storage capacity will be in three packages i.e. 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB. Battery supporting 10 hours of web surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music. Buit-in Accelerometer and Ambient light sensors. Connectivity available with WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular data services – EDGE/3G. The iPad runs on iPhone OS 3.2.

So, Impressed? Let me show you how Windows 7 powered Slate will be much more powerful. According to Phil McKinney “The highlight of Steve Ballmer’s slate introduction was the different modes—ebook reader, movie player—you can quickly jump to. But then and now, the story is really Windows, and those modes are just apps, running with the Start menu and all the familiar Windows accoutrements in full view. Being powered by Windows 7 is great, but I am not sure how I feel about this approach. What we see here is a Windows 7 desktop running a browser and a NYT app (aka another browser). I still think it’s cute, but I think everyone would agree that the hardware is not the story—smoother software is needed to make the tablet lifestyle palatable.”

As HP Slate will be running a full operating system, means you can take advantage of Multi-tasking i.e. Listening to music while browsing the internet etc, Web-Cam support, much larger storage, millions of applications already developed and designed for Windows, running full version of Office suite, supporting flash and many more.

According to some reviews posted at CrunchGear, Devin said “It’s a big iPod. That much is clear — it’s not really a tablet computer. Of course, the benefits of a giant iPod are manifest: you can check email easily, movies and shows will look nice (though not full HD), and the e-books looked great. But the fact is you’re limited by Apple in every way they can limit you. It’s got all the same fetters as an iPhone and has no expandable storage or USB port. Until you hack it to run Chrome OS, you’re going to be using this thing exactly the way Apple tells you to. It’ll be nice if that’s what you want, but it’s not the universal tablet I was hoping for. Nevertheless, I see every secretary and PA carrying one of these in a month.”

According to another CrunchGear team member Nicholas – “I mean, I already did a whole spiel on CNN (what?!) why the iPad is sorta “meh” in my eyes, but to recap: I simply don’t get it. It’s not an iPhone replacement because it’s not a phone (duh); it’s not an iPod touch replacement because it’s not portable; and I already have enough “real” computers that I don’t need a tablet. I understand I’m not Mr. Average Consumer, but the iPad seems to fill a void that I simply don’t need filled. Maybe as an e-reader, but that entirely depends upon the book selection, which isn’t clear right now. For now, though: meh.”