It seems “slate” is the word du Jour amongst the tech set to describe their pending tablet devices.

At the Microsoft keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, unveiled the HP Slate which runs on Windows 7.  While a vague release date was given that implied it would be out for the holiday season, and an even vaguer suggestion of a price between $500 and $700, it was obvious this was announced just to cut off the pending iSlate announcement from Apple.

While the rumors of the Apple tablet, tentatively named the iSlate, are still just rumors, it is looking pretty definite that it will be announced in the last week of this month for delivery in March.  While the HP Slate may have gotten the first announcement out, considering the biggest things they demoed was the ability to play the 1980′s game Frogger and using the Amazon Kindle PC reader, we can’t say we’re exactly awe struck by the device.  Of course, we’re still trying to figure out the whole point of these tablets, but that’s a thought for another day.

Check out this very brief introduction video of the product.