New HP touchpad

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by petermillard

HP TouchPad (wonder how they came up with that name, lol...) looks nice. Wonder if they mean 'Summer' as in May, or 'Summer' as in September... Battery life would be good to know, along with price of course.

Favourite comment from the Engadget piece - "it's just a big Pre"

mine too, but hey we all have credit cards bigger than the Pre. I can't even hold a Pre (perhaps the worst name EVER for a device ) let alone use the thing. I mean the iPhone/Touch devices are small but they are down right huge compared to the homunculus that is the HP Pre.

And oh yeah, it would be nice to know the prices. But didn't someone post a link to one online seller showing the 16gb version at $499 list? To me that is still $200 over priced for that capacity. But as HP has to make the money purely off hardware it might be a fact of life that these devices are going to open at $499. Heck if they could make a 32gb version at about $399 then there could be a lot of industry scrambling to counter PLUS a lot of the crappy rebranders out there would just die already. I think the rebranders/rebadger companies out there are one of the biggest roadblocks to any real advances in the market segment as not only do the bring very marginal devices to the table they also dilute the production capacity causing increases in the fees charged to make the name brand devices. But if there were more competition on the production line front then we might see some added pricing flexibility for the various brands. But right not I don't think the price points are all that attractive. I mean look at the Xoom and the Eee 121 devices at a mega-buck give or take $100 and a few hours battery life.

[Penforhire]

WebOS is a good OS and perhaps the only one really designed from the ground up for a tablet. But most consumers don't think of that so price is going to be crucial. They also need to trumpet their program (app) selection. They have to know they are perceived as a me-too entry after Apple, Motorola, and others who were here sooner but not as well received. Love them or hate them, Apple expanded the smartphone pie (as even a Nokia exec just admitted) and they are doing the same for tablets.

The Moto Xoom's got great specs but it'll crash and burn because of slightly higher price and the iPad 2 is likely to match up spec-wise.

[MaggieScratch]

Jon Rubinstein several times has mentioned a webOS netbook. I'd rather wait for that, I think.

If the Pre 3 comes to Sprint, I'll get it. I'll wait and see on the tablet.

[etherspin]

Originally Posted by wodin

I had a Palm Pre with WebOS before moving to an Android phone. WebOS had some nice features like the card deck approach to multi tasking, but it was horribly immature, and the available apps were like a toy store. Perhaps HP will/has bring it up to speed, we shall see.

can you comment on its multitasking capability ? I haven't seen the claimed sluggishness/lack of speed and what I heard otherwise was that its multitasking was streets ahead of iOS and android .. over ten apps could be running without a major performance hit on the pre plus supposedly ?

[RockdaMan]

"I think the rebranders /
rebadger companies out there are one of the biggest
roadblocks to any real advances in the market segment as
not only do the bring very marginal devices to the table they
also dilute the production capacity causing increases in the
fees charged to make the name brand devices . "

And so we see another Apple strength. They have pre-purchased years worth of capacity and components so as to keep their own prices steady and competitive. Anyone interested in business should study Apple.

[jlmwrite]

Yawn.

Nice looking slab of hardware with enviable specs but with an OS built on a dying software platform. Yeh, so webOS is designed to work with a tablet. Um, okay.

HP doesn't have a very good track record in the consumer market over the past few years: they pre-load their laptops with a ton of HP software that tends to break with Microsoft update, it's well-documented that their products often times don't play well with each other, and their tech support must be based on Dilbert. They churn out computers and printers by the millions, heavily discounted at Sam's Club and Costco and often used as loss leaders at Best Buy and other retailers -- but this doesn't make these good products. I can't imagine this product is going to fare any better; they are cashing in on the tablet craze.

And where are the apps? Are they gonna have a few flashy new apps to display, and then tell us we can access the enormous Palm library? Oh, golly, I can hardly wait!

[Penforhire]

You may be right. However, HP spent a truckload of money because they thought WebOS was worth it. Why do you call it dying? I agree in terms of market share but not in terms of development interest or capability. And while I agree their consumer PC's are weak sauce their commercial grade products are the bees knees (as I'm typing this on an HP EliteBook, lol). I think you're ruling out success too early.

Same as I'd now give Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, a chance to see what they can do with Microsoft's WP7. Even though Nokia failed miserably to promote their own smart phones (sounds familiar, in that Palm also failed and we'll see what HP can do with it).

[jocampo]

HP server's market is one of the strongest sides of HP . The bank where you have your money now, it is probably running an HP blade server with Oracle on top. Same for laptops. Same for HP laser printers; the printing quality is superb.

Now, there is a distinction with software problems and hardware problems. I am not a big fan of Windows. Their drivers and performance is not the best. If a developer does not provide a good and reliable driver, you will end stepping on another Windows component and create an issue, but that's Windows, not hardware.

Regarding the apps, that takes time, is a slow process. Even today Apple's apps are much more than Android. It took almost a year or so for Android to take off and develop a good Market.

I would be cautious but I think webOs is a strong operating system that will provide another nice alternative to what we have.

[phenomshel]

I have a Pre plus. WebOS got several things right, and no, it is not slow. It's made for touch, so it's got that advantage going for it already. It excels at multitasking (maybe a little too well at times, LOL). The apps, in my opinion are the weakness. Both ereading apps convert whatever format you send it into HTML (which is a lousy idea and doesn't work, you get scrambled characters because of encoding errors). However, Chris says WebOS is easy to develop for, so maybe that'll change. So why am I ditching my Pre at my next upgrade?
Well... long story short, I need docking capability for both desk and car. The Touchstone is neat, but won't do what I want for desktop, and there isn't an "official" car dock for it that I'm aware of.

If I didn't need the docks, though - I'd probably be really happy upgrading to a Pre3.

[jlmwrite]

Originally Posted by jocampo

HP server's market is one of the strongest sides of HP . The bank where you have your money now, it is probably running an HP blade server with Oracle on top.

Yep, but there is a huge distinction between their business products and their consumer products. Just because there a millions and millions of consumer laptops and PCs floating around doesn't make HP better. They have a proven track record of using the cheapest of the cheap components (yes, everyone has to save pennies, but HP seems to be the worst), and their support centers have some of the worst track records of any tech company.

As for apps... I'm well-known for my dislike of Apple. I appreciate the products for what they are, and I'd be a complete idiot for not recognizing there apps library is enormous. Android has a much smaller app market, but it also grew much faster than did Apple's. Palm had tons of apps back in the day, most of which have no relevance anymore.

I do think lots of folks, especially businesses, will buy the HP tablet, but at the projected price points it's going to have a very tough time competing in the consumer market.

[RockdaMan]

$699

We’ve also been told pricing should be $699; slightly less than Motorola’s $799 XOOM.

...and Jobs laughs again...

[MsCG1]

Originally Posted by jlmwrite

Yawn.

Nice looking slab of hardware with enviable specs but with an OS built on a dying software platform. Yeh, so webOS is designed to work with a tablet. Um, okay.

HP doesn't have a very good track record in the consumer market over the past few years: they pre-load their laptops with a ton of HP software that tends to break with Microsoft update, it's well-documented that their products often times don't play well with each other, and their tech support must be based on Dilbert. They churn out computers and printers by the millions, heavily discounted at Sam's Club and Costco and often used as loss leaders at Best Buy and other retailers -- but this doesn't make these good products. I can't imagine this product is going to fare any better; they are cashing in on the tablet craze.

And where are the apps? Are they gonna have a few flashy new apps to display, and then tell us we can access the enormous Palm library? Oh, golly, I can hardly wait!

HP is the biggest PC manufacturer in the world and leads in the marketshare. They didn't pay over a billion dollars for WebOs and then promptly abandon the Palm brand just to "cash in" on the tablet craze.
HP abandoned the Windows mobile platform, they have announced WebOs on printers, desktops, notebooks, and netbooks as well as tablets. Obviously this is a long term plan and investment to move away from Microsoft dependency and to create their own brand of "cloud computing".

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by jlmwrite

Yep, but there is a huge distinction between their business products and their consumer products. Just because there a millions and millions of consumer laptops and PCs floating around doesn't make HP better. They have a proven track record of using the cheapest of the cheap components (yes, everyone has to save pennies, but HP seems to be the worst), and their support centers have some of the worst track records of any tech company.

As for apps... I'm well-known for my dislike of Apple. I appreciate the products for what they are, and I'd be a complete idiot for not recognizing there apps library is enormous. Android has a much smaller app market, but it also grew much faster than did Apple's. Palm had tons of apps back in the day, most of which have no relevance anymore.

I do think lots of folks, especially businesses, will buy the HP tablet, but at the projected price points it's going to have a very tough time competing in the consumer market.

I am kind of biased right now so won't argue that comment too much, but as an end user I can tell that's more perception than anything else. I personally have not had any issue with any laptop and the customer support, when some relatives had printer questions, was top quality.

You most also understand that HP is the biggest IT company in the whole world, so at that scale it is almost impossible not having minor issues or people unhappy at sometimes.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by MsCG1

HP is the biggest PC manufacturer in the world and leads in the marketshare. They didn't pay over a billion dollars for WebOs and then promptly abandon the Palm brand just to "cash in" on the tablet craze.
HP abandoned the Windows mobile platform, they have announced WebOs on printers, desktops, notebooks, and netbooks as well as tablets. Obviously this is a long term plan and investment to move away from Microsoft dependency and to create their own brand of "cloud computing".

That is 100% correct. The main idea was establish leadership in the current tablet and cellphone market and webOs, being a strong product, is the perfect contender. Todd Bradley is "betting all his poker chips" on this new endeavor and some people say this is more than business but a personal challenge too.

[Teyrnon]

$699? I'm interested in a tablet device but I already think the iPad is overpriced. I doubt I'm alone in that. So, far all these tablet devices I've heard about are priced on par or above the iPad. That said, I might consider a TouchPad if it's priced around $399 or so. But at $699, forget it.