Padding out the market
PC giant HP has finally launched the suite of new products everyone had been expecting since it bought Palm, and its webOS mobile platform, almost a year ago. The launch took the form of a tablet and two handsets.
The TouchPad marks HP's entry into the tablet market after much prevarication. Before the Palm acquisition HP was going to give good, old Windows a go on its ‘Slate', but the inability of Microaoft to produce something remotely competitive with Apple's iOS was probably a big factor in HP going shopping for its own mobile OS.
We'll give you an overview of the specs and some piccies below, but first impressions seem to be pretty positive. Influential blogger Robert Scoble thinks the TouchPad give the iPad a run for its money,while the main criticism is not the product, but the launch date - sometime this summer.
There was even talk of migrating webOS to the PC - yet another kick in the unmentionables for Microsoft - but the big question concerns whether the market can support another mobile ecosystem.
Android and iOS are a given, and our feeling is that only leaves room for one more platform to proliferate in a major way. It's increasingly looking like a triumvirate of Microsoft, Intel and Nokia is going to push some combination of WP7 and Meego, and the incumbent third player is BlackBerry, so right now that puts webOS in fifth, at best.
"Today we're embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available," said Jon Rubinstein, SVP and GM of Palm at HP. "The flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world."
Among the unique features of the new webOS devices are ‘touch-to-share', which enables the sharing of URLs between devices by merely touching them together. There is, of course, an email/messaging/social networking hub, and it's worth noting that HP has gone with Qualcomm for the chip, where Palm had previously used the TI OMAP SoC. It's only a single core one, but HP seems to have clocked it up nicely.
UPDATE 2 - 12:40, 10 Feb 2011: The TouchPad, of course, has the dual-core APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor, part of the MSM8x60 family, as shown below. Apologies - we blame the distraction of launching a new site :)
Specs:
- HP TouchPad features and specs
- HP webOS
- Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor
- 9.7-inch diagonal XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant, 18-bit color, 1,024 x 768 resolution display
- The option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage
- High-performance browser with full access to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta for access to rich, Flash-based web content(1)
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication(1)
- A-GPS (3G only)
- Bluetooth® wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
- Multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, and a 3.5 mm headset/headphone/microphone jack
- Internal stereo speakers and Beats Audio
- Front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for live video calling
- Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)(6)
- Robust messaging support
- Light sensor, accelerometer, compass (magnetometer) and gyroscope
- Rechargeable 6,300 mAh (typical) battery
- Micro-USB (Charging and PC Connect) with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
- Built-in HP Touchstone technology for easy charging (HP Touchstone for TouchPad sold separately) and HP touch-to-share to share web addresses between TouchPad and compatible webOS phones
- Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm (7.48 inches x 9.53 inches x .54 inches)
- Weight: approximately 740 g (1.6 pounds)
UPDATE - 11:15, 10 Feb 2011: Here's the full event from yesterday, nearly two hours of it. Enjoy.
