HP's webOS tablet 'due in Q3' HP will release a tablet based on Palm's webOS in the third quarter, according to a report citing an "HP insider." According to Examiner.com, the device will be known as the HP Hurricane. On April 28, HP announced it had agreed to purchase Palm, and during a conference call with reporters and analysts, the company said it …
They've absolutely, positively got to have a credible consumer-focused tablet available for the 2010 holiday season.
Whatever is out at that time will sell. iPads have a huge head start, no doubt, but that's primarily affluent early adopters-- Joe Mainstream will be buying tablets this Christmas.
While it's nice to dream that a HP tablet will be good. They've not made a decent PDA or mobile phone in years.
This tablet will be some quick bodge using a design they've had sitting about. It will be ugly, inefficient and there will be no software for it. It may run existing WebOS apps, but scaled up. It will be a while before a tablet version of the OS comes out.
Why do I need a tablet? at least in its present form? I have a laptop which does more than 100 times more than a tablet, others have a notebook. As for the ipad what wasteful expensive rubbish. I reserve opinion for HP's but am not convinced I need to spend 450-500 for a thing that's far inferior to any laptop and it's almost as big. If they can make these tablets foldable and 200grams may think about one. Thanks.
Forget what Billy G and Microsoft have been spouting for the last decade. This new iteration of tablets are not laptops, and not replacements for laptops. They are media consumption devices: web browsing, images, movies, books.
When you want to get shit done, you use a computer or laptop.
When you *don't* want to get shit done, you use a tablet.
The 3rd quarter ends in 143 days and HP doesn't even own WebOS yet. I do not believe they can bring a viable product to market in that time. The original rumor said "as early as" the end of Q3, but nobody is quoting that part. I do not expect an HP tablet in time for the holiday season this year even though they are probably working on it right now. There are all those nasty little details like getting a finished product to manufacturing, producing a sufficient quantity and, of course, FCC certification. At least we won't have to wait very long to find out.
I'm not holding a grudge about the HP Slate thing, which they held onto for five years and just dragged out to try to head off the iPad announcement. It might have been a hit a year ago. Market timing is a tricky thing.
But even if they get this thing perfect in time for a third quarter release there's the issue of parts. One of the first clues that Apple was up to something was last November when they started taking options on the world's entire supply of thin displays of this size. Then there's the timing issue - it just won't have enough time with a release in September to get a big enough market going to justify a big manufacturing ramp leading into the Christmas season. There won't be enough samples about to get people going oooh, shiny. The iPad, at the same time will have a considerable advantage with several million samples showing up on coffee tables and meeting tables, at airports and coffee bars.
So Jobs, with notably impeccable timing and ultra secrecy has pulled off another coup. No doubt plans for the iPad II began on the same day the iPad plans did and it'll be released about the time this "Hurricane" is still a tropical depression.
Don't get me wrong - I want the thing. I would prefer it to an iPad. But I'm going to have to see a sample before I hang my hopes on it. I doubt HP would buy Palm to build credibility in vaporware. But the thing would need cameras front&back, three major wireless carriers with killer plans, and an early 3Q release date to blunt the iPad's first mover advantage. It would take flawless execution and awesome marketing with a big budget.
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