According to many analysts, the TouchPad by HP is the only device currently able to challenge the dominance of the iPad. After watching demonstrations of said device thanks to HP’s special press event in California earlier this week as well as Mobile World Congress in Spain last week, it’s not hard to see why people would believe that. The device features one of the most polished operating systems seen on a mobile platform, and thanks to its “cards” interface, it has the best multitasking we have seen on a tablet to date.
But of course, the question on everyone’s lips is when the device will get a launch date as well as a price tag. HP’s new CEO has said that the company takes too long to bring devices to market after announcing them and it is hard to disagree with him when such examples as the HP Slate still leave bitter taste in preorders’ minds. HP has said the device would ship within weeks but seeing weeks is relative and could mean anywhere from 4 even 12 it is unrealistic to put a time frame on such a vague statement.
We do have some rumors however which are pegging the TouchPad for an April launch with HP planning to push 4-5 million units of the webOS powered tablet PC to end users by the end of the year. If this holds up to be true, it would fit perfectly within the timeframe HP has given itself, though vague, to deliver on its promise. As for a price it is not yet known and it’s anyone’s guess as to a possible price. Hopefully we are dealing with something south of the Xoom from Motorola and no more expensive than the Blackberry Playbook from RIM.
Source: DigiTimes
Archive for the ‘HP Phones’ Category
HP to sell TouchPad in April?
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Confirmed: Pre 2, Wave II and Pearl 3G
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Three new handsets have been confirmed as heading for the UK market; RIM’s BlackBerry Pearl 3G, the Samsung Wave II and the HP Palm Pre 2.
HP has seen their promise through; they will continue the development and production of Palm’s smart phones. In fact, the Palm Pre 2, which was originally thought to have been cancelled due to the closure of Palm, has been continued and is now going to be launched pretty soon. The device has been upgraded with a 1GHz CPU and several other hardware tweaks and has been shown off by Palm on a quick one page online teaser. As for the actual launch date, no details have been given so far.
Samsung’s Wave smart phone may have been an underdog when it first launched –after all, the device was sporting an all new touch screen technology as well as Samsung’s very first incarnation of their proprietary operating system, the Bada OS.
While not much was expected from the handset, the Wave actually managed to sell well –well enough to spawn secondary devices: the Wave 2 and Wave 2 Pro. The Wave 2 series features specs lower than the original Wave (with the Pro version sporting a slide out QWERTY keyboard).
Samsung has recently confirmed that they will be launching the Wave II –an all new handset featuring the Bada operating system and hardware that is better than the original Wave. The only thing that is not yet confirmed is how good the new super LCD screen technology especially when it gets compared to the super AMOLED touch screen that was present in the first Wave handset.
Lastly, Virgin Media and T-Mobile confirmed that they will be offering the BlackBerry Pearl 3G in the UK. The smart phone is available on a wide variety of plans and tariffs but only T-Mobile offers the device on a pay as you go scheme.
HP’s Battle Plan: Tease Us to Oblivion
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
It seems that HP is taking the long winding road to showing the world what it really intends to do with all that technology and patents that they have been able to obtain through the whole Palm buy out issue.
For those unfamiliar with recent events, mobile phone maker Palm has taken severe financial loses and the company was put up for sale earlier this year. With the company’s future looking bleak, many of the top executives have already jumped ship leaving behind the captain at the helm of the sinking ship.
Despite the financial setbacks, many other phone makers have been eyeing Palm’s resources –particularly for the very successful WebOS mobile platform and of course, the patent library owned by the company. Taiwan based HTC was among the companies confirmed to be interested in getting Palm.
This is why it was a complete surprise to learn that it was actually HP that decided to buy out Palm and take the company under its wings. According to HP, the reason they chose to purchase Palm was for the WebOS mobile platform, which was ironically followed up by a statement that they would not be working on smart phones. This statement was quickly changed after a massive public outcry. The statement then changed to HP looking into smart phone development, but not at the moment.
Now it seems that they are taking that much needed long hard look as the latest image teaser of CTO Phil McKinney shows that the company is indeed working on a smart phone type device. But that is all HP is willing to let the public know. For all practical reasons, the images could very well be showing Phil holding a small remote control.
In any case, the SXSW 2011 event is coming up and we can all expect to see what these intriguing devices are.