With the acquisition of Palm many people have been waiting to see how HP was going to integrate webOS into their products. Well, HP finally let the cat out of the bag yesterday when they announced their new line of webOS devices.
HP TouchPad:
This is probably the device that has the most interest to me since I am in the market for some sort of tablet device. The TouchPad will size up with a 9.7 inch screen, a 1024 x 768 resolution display and weighing in at approximately 1.6 pounds. The processor will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2GHz. A 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera will be included, and the Touchpad will support 3G as well as wireless b/g/n. There will be a 16GB and 32GB model. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be an SD card reader or HDMI output. You can see a full list of features here.
HP Veer:
This is one of two new mobile devices announced. As you can see from the picture below the Veer is extremely small, about the size of a gift card. The Veer comes with a 2.6in touch screen, 5 megapixel camera, slide-out physical keyboard, and support for wireless b/g/n, all running on a Qualcomm MSM7230, 800Mhz Processor. Only an 8GB model will be available. You can see a full list of specs/features here. At face value it seems the Veer is being pushed at the social networking crowd. It has an unsettling similarity to the failed Microsoft Kin, and given that many of the smart phones these days emphasize a larger screen with more real estate to play with (including the also announced HP Pre3) I think the Veer is going to have a hard time getting any sort of traction.
HP Pre3:
This is the bigger brother to the HP Veer and a follow up to the Palm Pre. The Pre3 sports a 3.58in touchscreen, slide-out physical keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, and support for wireless b/g/n, all running on a more robust Qualcomm MSM 8×55 (1.4 GHz) Processor. There will be a 16GB and 32GB model available. The Pre3 is geared more towards the business user, but I also believe this would be a more direct competitor of the casual iPhone/Android user. Full specs/features can be found here.
All three devices will have access to the HP webOS App market. Unfortunately they all have the same poor audio/video codec support (H264 mp4) as the iOS. An interesting development is that HP is talking about porting over webOS to the PC.
Final Thoughts:
I must admit that I have never used webOS so I cannot comment on how well it works versus Apple iOS or Google Android. Just from reading around and seeing some videos though it does look impressive. Unfortunately HP has not announced dates or prices, only that the new line will launch at some point in the summer of 2011.
As I mentioned earlier of particular interest to me is the HP Touchpad. I was reading over on Zatz Not Funny! and I commented that my hesitance initially with a tablet such as the Touchpad or the Blackberry Playbook is how robust the App market will be for these devices. At some point the specs on all these tablets will be comparable, so in my opinion the App market is what will set the devices apart. As we all know this has undoubtedly been the strength of iOS, and Android isn’t too far behind. For a device such as the HP Touchpad or the Blackberry Playback, how long will it take before developers come on board in full force? I am not talking about the usual Facebook/Kindle/Pandora app. My wife has an iPad and one thing we do frequently is download Apps (educational and games) for my sons. We have Apps for multimedia (Air Video, XBMC, Subsonic, MyMovies) and remote control (MyMovies, Dune Remote, PCH, etc…). What I don’t want to do is purchase a tablet and have to wait three moths, six months, or longer for hopefully a robust App market to develop to get the functionality I could current get with an iOS or Android device. Increased competition can only benefit the consumer, but I think I will have to sit on the sidelines for now and see how the market shapes up (unfortunately a “summer” release really does kill some of the excitement for the HP Touchpad, especially with the iPad 2 and Android tablets looming).
Article by Damian
Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com or follow me on twitter
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Why bother? HP might just pull out of phones with no notice at all. Seems to be a habit with them.
Damian,
You hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph. I actually like WebOS but with no robust developer support, it’s as good as dead like IBM OS/2.
As Al West mentioned above, I’m still sore with HP for pulling out of the WHS/Mediasmart market. I’m not sure that I’m willing to put my money back into them yet on any of their products.
Hey Richard,
I just have to hide my wallet and not allow for any spontaneous purchases until I can see how things shape up! I think my wish list for a tablet would be expandable memory, removable battery, hdmi out (aside from the usual functionality/app store). Obviously my wishes don’t bode too well for getting an iPad 2, but who knows. Hopefully by that release more Android tablets will hit the market as well to choose from (the Motorola Xoom specs look great but the rumored $800 price tag and the forced one month data service is a joke).
Oh yeah, Happy Valentine’s Day
HP announced not one but two new phones based on HP webOS. Packed with snapdragon processors and touchscreen plus full qwerty keyboards they are truly revolutionary when used with HP’s Touchsmart technology.