Microsoft receives early holiday boost with HP release

A tablet that costs $99, and a laptop that costs $199 – appears to be what Microsoft believes is the secret for success this holiday season – and thanks to HP that will be possible.

Microsoft has been trying to compete with inexpensive Android tablets, as well as Google Chromebooks, which dominate their respective markets – as far as “entry level” devices are concerned, for some time, and finally with the launch of two devices set for this November – the company can see light at the end of the tunnel.

HP-Windows-Tablet

The $99 7-inch HP Stream 7 tablet will be powered by an Intel chipset. The same goes for the mildly upgraded 8-inch version of the device which will retail for $149 upon release. The tablet will obviously run Windows and will be the lowest cost Windows device on the market to date released by the company, right off the bat.

However, even with low-specifications there does seem to be some benefit to buying the device. Right now, Microsoft will also be adding a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal with 1TB of OneDrive storage and 60 minutes of skype calls per month. The larger 8-inch version of the tablet will also include 200MB of free LTE data each month with no contract needed on the device.

In addition to the tablets though, HP will also be launching two stream laptops. One will feature an 11.6-inch model that comes with HD display, or a 13.3-inch version with optional touch display. Both will come with Intel’s Celeron processors – so they won’t be high-performance machines.

http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2014/09/29/1300/2015-ecoboost-mustang-loses-voice-fuse-removed/

However, the cost is what is expected to be the true draw. While the two laptops will focus on basic computing needs, and be cost-friendly – they won’t have fans inside them, have 32GB of flash storage and a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal.

The price points on the two laptops will be $199 and $229 respectively, and all of the devices set for this November release will be set to “kill off” Chromebooks entirely. It would appear as though, running a slightly more popular operating system – which this holiday season could see serious damage done to Google’s Chromebook business.

http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2014/09/28/1289/apple-iphone-6-reach-115-countries-end-2014/

HP though is also planning a launch of a 14-inch Stream laptop later this month – which will introduce Stream into the holiday family.