All Things Digital is reporting that HP’s planned Android Slate tablet has been delayed, possibly indefinitely. Given HP’s recent acquisition of Palm, it seems likely that HP is choosing to focus on development of their webOS tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad as quickly as possible. From a business standpoint, HP is probably making the right move. For Android and open source fans, though, this is indeed a sad day.

Despite HP’s less-than-perfect reputation for hardware quality, the Slate platform is definitely the slickest-looking tablet this side of the iPad, and Android would have benefited from a wide-release, US market tablet. While US bound tablet-fare from MSI and Dell is expected (and in Dell’s case, one tablet maybe very soon, stay tuned!), HP’s Slate certainly had the most hype behind as an answer to the iPad.

Credit: All Things Digital