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HP Unveils WebOS Tablet, Plans WebOS Computer
jfruhlinger writes "As had been expected, Hewlett-Packard unveiled new webOS-based smartphones and a webOS tablet today. But in a bit of a shock, the company also announced that webOS would be coming to HP PCs. Whether this is happening in specialized products only or HP plans a wholesale repudiation of Windows, it's definitely a bold move."
"HP! Wasn't it clear? You were our bitch!"
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
If the price is right, I'll probably end up getting either the Veer or the Pre 3. Both of these look like really nice devices, and the OS is the nicest of the recent-generation ones I've used.
I think the long-term success of the platform really depends on how soon HP gets these out the door - "early spring" and "summer" are vague terms. If they wait until August for the Pre 3 and the TouchPad, I think they really lose an opportunity. If the Veer is out in March and the Pre 3 and TouchPad follow in June, HP's in good shape. The hardware's looking great and the OS is superior to almost anything out there right now; they just have to make it happen.
Why wouldn't anyone buy the Pre 3 and TouchPad when there's competition? Why do you think that people are still going to buy Android devices when there's competition from the iPad and iPad 2? Your logic seems disturbingly like Android troll logic.
The products aren't finished, the OS isn't ready, and announcing now does absolutely nothing to slow down the iPad. The Moto Xoom is overpriced, which will self limit it's sales. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is notably smaller, different market segment. And no one else is actually shipping a competitor. A pointless pre-announcement with no pricing, insufficient product info, and no product for an unspecified number or months. Way to kill off sales of current WebOS phones and have essentially no impact on the competition.
Is HP trying to kill WebOS before it has a chance to succeed, or are they just clueless?
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
No video-out (at least no talk of it). If they wanted to do business, the ability to do video-out to project might have been a nice bonus, not to mention set-top application.
Pre 3's resolution is lower than the Atrix and iPhone 4. RAM lower than the Atrix.
There may be a chance that between the reduced ram and screen size/resolution, they can out-battery the Atrix, which may be the reason for going light on those specs relative to the cutting edge.
No LTE or WiMax radio capability mentioned. This is a very strange omission.
WebOS on a regular 'computer' seems disinteresting. I'm a fan of WebOS as an excellent compromise for multitasking management given a small form factor, but I'd much rather have traditional window management on my desktop/laptop.
On the good news, they *finally* got an auto-focus camera (that was one hardware feature that was needed to do all sorts of things along the lines of barcode recognition). The screen resolution is a nice bump and is at least in the ball-park of Atrix and iPhone 4. The 1.4 GHz snapdragon seems pretty good. The 'tap to share' seemed a decent enough story on owning the 'family' of products, but I still can't be bothered to care about any tablet.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
This is the same comment I leave to Android fanboys.
Real artists ship.
Show me product and a release date, not a flashy and useless bit of info about some product that might come out soon.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
"iPad ridiculously overpriced"
Right, which is why there are so many competing tablets of equivalent featureset coming in under the iPad's price...
Oh wait, the other thing, opposite to what I just said.
Everyone crowed about supposed price of the iPad in the speculation and hype up to its launch, and when the actual price was announced, everyone quietly revised down their "zomg it's overpriced" by several hundred dollars. As yet we *still * haven't seen a competitor come in at significantly lower (or even a little lower) cost. If it's so overpriced, there will be a ton of tablets at a much lower price point - so far, I have yet to see that. They're all around the iPad's price or higher.
Your point about "finding a tool that fits" is dead on though - despite iPhone and Android, there will still be people who buy these new WebOS devices (assuming they are any good) purely because neither the iPhone nor the Android ecosystem provides what that customer is looking for.
You are highly underestimating this event. I would put it as beginning of the end of Microsoft dominance in PC business. The Apple has shown that Windows is not necessary, however, majority of buyers are in enterprise where Apple has low penetration and also Apple can't make low cost computers or provide enterprise level customization/support/consulting. If HP can make as cheap laptop using WebOS as they are making Windows one, then they have a serious chance of penetrating enterprise market. Here are few reasons:
-- Most enterprises now a days use web based apps for majority of their business. Only requirement is a browser like FF.
-- Windows have too many security issues. Since it was virtually everywhere, it is compatible with all viruses out there. For WebOS, they will have to start from fresh. Also, employees download lots of junk uncertified software. If HP locks down WebOS like iOS, then only HP app store apps can be downloaded and expectation is that like Apple, HP will screen and limit apps on its store.