HP Slate & Microsoft Courier out of the game.

Looks like it is a little too hard for Microsoft and HP to keep up with the iPad.

Two of the most influential companies in the tablet race are headed back to the drawing board.

Microsoft and HP on seperate occasions indicated that they would be dropping the products as they were not satisfied by the performance.

The two products in question are the Microsoft Courier and the HP Slate.

We had reviewed and reported on the Microsoft courier some time before. You can read about it here. How ever it was later revealed to inside sources that the courier was all vaporware and it was only on the drawing board. It had never left the drawing board although Microsoft had worked on the idea.

Microsoft’s VP Corporate Communications had confirmed this and had said that the Courier was a stepping stone and that more different designs were being considered while no physical device has been made.

Well thats all for the Courier.

We had also talked earlier that HP might release their Slate this year. It seems unlikey as Techcrunch reported that HP is set to cancel the project.

HP is reportedly disappointed on Microsoft Windows 7’s performance on the slate. Slate was set to sell on the ease of usability that windows 7 would have provided but HP seemed dissatisfied.

It is easy to see why HP might have dropped slate. Now that it has a clear intension to acquire Palm, HP is set to grab all the patents that Palm has in mobile computing and apply them to HP tablets, resulting in a better product.

HP’s decision to reevaluate tablet’s choice of OS can be a marketting blow to Microsoft but a gain to Google’s Android OS. Google would love to grab this chance to get Microsoft out of the mobile game.

Lets wait and watch.