HP's webOS-powered TouchPad to touchdown July 1

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 10 June 2011 13:40

Your IT - Home IT

In the war between tablet makers, HP is set to make a touchdown on July 1, but rather than being the act that wins the game, it's merely the date on which HP finally enters the US market.

If you've been wondering exactly when HP would release its very iPad 1-esque webOS TouchPad tablet, wonder no more.

July 1 is the date, and the prices are predictably iPad-esque too, with HP opting to release Wi-Fi only versions at first, at US $499.99 for a 16GB TouchPad and US $599.99 for a 32GB model.

HP says that the TouchPad will be launched in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany shortly thereafter, without specifying an actual date, with Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain and Italy set to get the TouchPad 'later this year'.

All of this staggered launch business from various tablet makers is an odd thing, but clearly they haven't got their production lines up and running to make enough units for a worldwide release, and have to stagger them throughout the year.

Indeed, it was only yesterday that Samsung's 10.1 Android tablet officially launched in the US, with Asus, Acer, Motorola and others only very recently launching in Australia with Android tablets, too.

In the meantime, Apple has sold 20 million iPad 2 models, despite the 'hard to get' nature of the latest iPad. In what will be a sea of Android tablets, the PlayBook, HP's TouchPad and Windows tablets to come, Apple is the main beneficiary thus far, which is fitting considering it was first to market with a tablet people actually not only want but are clamouring to buy.

Just like all the other tablets out there, HP's features a dual-core processor, with the TouchPad's specifically being a 1.2GHz Snapdragon.

There's 1GB of RAM within, a 9.7-inch 1024x768 touch-screen, a front facing 1.3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 6300 mAh battery.

Continued on page two, please read on!