CES 2010: HP Slate announced by Microsoft, runs on Windows 7

While all the talk is naturally about Apple’s upcoming tablet release this year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wasted no time in announcing and unveiling the HP Slate (as Ballmer called it), Microsoft’s very own tablet device.

As reported from Pocket-Lint, the HP Slate will be joined by two other tablet devices, manufactured by Archos and Pegatron.

He didn’t go into details on what kind of specs the Slate will have, but did mention that the device will have ‘full’ support for the Kindle e-book reader.

According to Ballmer, the HP Slate will be available this year, we’ll let you know when we have more solid details on it.

So, what are your first impressions? Can this challenge the Apple tablet?