The Affordable Android Tablet from HP

Meg Whitman arrived at Hewlett-Packard when the company was in a sad state of affairs. Since that time she has eliminated tens of thousands of jobs, with more on the way, and by all accounts most experts have given her good grades for starting to turn the company around. In 2014, the Q1 cash flow from operations of $3.0 billion is up 17 percent from the prior-year period and earnings can only go higher as payroll continues to decrease. The company is still trying to find a product that can resonate with consumers, and it is going to the bottom of the barrel with a $99 tablet.

The HP 7 Plus has been available in Europe for some time now and just landed in the US with less than a receptive welcome. By all accounts most of the reviews for the device have been harsh, and considering the price tag it is not that surprising. While some of the professionals were less than kind, many consumers look to buy the device to give to their kids so they won't mess up their iPads.

Just in case you are in a market for one here are the specs:

The HP 7 Plus has a 7-inch IPS display (1,024 x 600), Allwinner A31 quad-core 1Ghz processor, 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 8 GB (eMMC) internal storage, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 2,800mAh lithium-polymer battery (with up to 330 minutes or five and half hours of battery life).

It runs of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and it includes one micro USB 2.0, a micro SD (expandable up to 32 GB), 2 MP rear camera, 0.3 MP front shooter, an integrated microphone, a 3.5mm headphone jack and 25 GB of cloud storage from Box "for life."

Considering the price it is not bad, but one complaint is the battery life. At a little more than five hours it is almost less than half of most tablets in the market, but again they are not $99.

Another technology that is not mentioned is Bluetooth, GPS and LTE, which are almost a requirement for many of today's applications. Not being able to use geo-location applications and interact with other tablet owners via Bluetooth can drive some customers to save for another couple of months and opt for an iPad.