HP TouchPad will not get an easy ride against the Tab 10.1 and iPad 2

WebOS, the OS that everybody loves, but that isn't running on hot smartphone form factors yet, will reach version 3.0 in the coming weeks. The HP TouchPad is the device to bring it to market, and the capacitive tablet can now be pre-ordered in select markets. The official release date for the TouchPad is July 1 for U.S. customers. It's worth noting that AT&T will officially launch a version of the TouchPad this summer, so don't go ahead and pre-order the Wi-Fi model if you want AT&T 3G connectivity. More details will be announced closer to release.

The TouchPad Wi-Fi will be available in 16GB and 32GB versions, selling for $500 and $600, respectively. Optional accessories for the TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, a Wireless Keyboard and a TouchPad Case (all sold separately). U.S. retailers and commercial resellers for the TouchPad include Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot, Walmart, Sam's Club, OfficeMax, Amazon.com, Fry's, Microcenter, other leading local and regional retailers, as well as HP's online stores.

We recently reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - an Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet that proved to be packed with advanced technology in a super-thin body. The iPad 2 has taken a slightly different route, focusing heavily on its "Supersized iPhone" experience. The HP TouchPad will not get an easy ride against the Tab 10.1 and iPad 2, and let's not forget that 7-inchers like the HTC Flyer (and soon EVO View 4G for Sprint) will claim a stake in the capacitive tablet market too.

HP is confident that the TouchPad will become a success though:

"What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. "The platform's unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP's scale can do with webOS."

We look forward to giving the TouchPad a run for its money!

The WebOS nuts at PreCentral have received an anonymous tip-off that HP's imminent slate won't be able to edit Office docs out of the box. As much as we'd like to dismiss this as a retaliatory rumor put out by BlackBerry, it emits an unfortunate whiff of truth. While HP has previously made a big deal of the TouchPad's inclusion of the Quickoffice app, it has only said it's "working with Quickoffice" to include document editing, and it has never demoed editing in action. The company has recently been trying to boost its app count, but perhaps it should have put more effort into securing core functionality instead. A glimmer of hope, though: the same tip-off also suggested that at least some editing capabilities will be introduced "via a downloadable update in Q3 2011". Hey, what's the rush?

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Could HP TouchPad be very competitive on the market

Hewlett-Packard on Friday said that it would start selling its highly-anticipated TouchPad media tablet starting July 1, 2011. Depending on the version, the TouchPad with Wi-Fi will cost $499 or $599. HP hopes that the TouchPad will be very competitive on the market because of its feature-set and flexibility.
It is joining a batch of other tablets, including the iPad2, Motorola Xoom, more Galaxy Tabs and the BlackBerry Playbook.


Since there's still a few days before HP will be taking orders, let's take a look under the hood.



Platform


HP started dabbling in smartphones with the IPAQ Voice Messenger in 2007 before getting serious and buying Palm in 2010. Palm had built a following around the early Palm Pilot organizer and the Treo line of smartphones.


This deal gave HP control of Palm's slick operating system known as webOS, which was being used on the Palm Pre smartphones.


The webOS platform is completely different from Android and the iOS devices.


If you ask any Palm Pre fans, they would say it's all about synergy, as the webOS goes about gathering all your information, such as contacts, calendar items and social networks, and putting it in one place.


Armed with Palm's technology, I knew it would just be a matter of time before an HP tablet was born and shazam!, we now have the TouchPad.


HP simply says "there is nothing like it" when touting the webOS platform, adding that it'll take multitasking to another level.


If the TouchPad can put all my calendars in one place, like HP claims, that could be a winner, as I have calendars scattered all the over the Web in Google, Yahoo!, Apple's MobileMe and of course, Microsoft Exchange. That's just too many, but I don't know what to do about it.


According to HP, you can expect a lot of synergy between the TouchPad and two HP smartphones - the Veer and the Pre 3 - for sharing Web addresses with the TouchPad.

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