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HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011

By | August 20, 2010, 7:18am PDT

Computer giant HP, which acquired Palm earlier this year for $1.2 billion, plans to release a tablet system running Palm’s mobile OS webOS in 2011.

“You’ll see us with a Microsoft product in the near future, and a webOS-based product in early 2011,” said Todd Bradley, head of HP’s personal systems group, during yesterday’s quarterly earnings call.

The way HP plans to segment the market here is interesting. According to HP tablets running Windows 7 OS would be aimed at enterprise users, while webOS-based tablets would be aimed at consumers. I guess that HP believes that consumers are more price sensitive than OS sensitive.

Time will tell …

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Hewlett-Packard Co., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

Talkback Most Recent of 22 Talkback(s)

  • HP to kill webOS tablets in 2012
    This just in. After staggering through a full year of laughable reviews and embarassingly low sales HP will wise up and kill webos slates. In related news HP will accept them back for recycling at any of its offices since it turns out the only people who ever bought them were the HP employees working on the project.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Johnny Vegas
    20th Aug 2010
  • What makes me wonder is the why....
    @Johnny Vegas
    Was HP not working on a Windows 7 tablet? Was it the HP Windows 7 tablet not in development and money spent on said development? So the purchasing of Palm seems to be for the purpose of getting WebOs and since HP does not seem to be rushing into the smartphone market then this purchase seems to be to get the WebOs for use in the tablet market? So again the big question is the why of all this time, development, and money spent?

    Pagan jim
    ZDNet Gravatar
    James Quinn
    20th Aug 2010
  • This just in... Johnny Vegas arrested for stealing a webOS tablet.
    According to police Mr. Vegas, an Apple Fan Boy, was too embarrassed to purchase one of the new highly rated webOS tablets that have been selling by the millions and decided to attempt to walk out of the Best Buy with the device under his jacket. This theft shows how low Apple Fan Boy's will go to get their hands on the highest rated operating system on the market. UPDATE?. Mr. Vegas committed suicide shortly after being released from jail. A note was left by Mr. Vegas indicating that his death was due to being banned from all Apple fan boy sites and could not live with the embarrassment. His friends and family all stated that he was a closet Palm fan boy. He was buried with his Apple iphone and a Palm 2 phone.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cardgame
    20th Aug 2010
  • RE: HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011
    Well at least Adrian has finally wised up to the fact that HP did not kill the Windows 7 Slate.

    Engineering Houses should be big customers for the Win 7 slate. I imagine it will make huge inroads in the Medical field as well.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kyron.gustafson@...
    20th Aug 2010
  • RE: HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011
    @kyron.gustafson@...

    And how would it be different from all the other Tablet PCs we've seen for decades? I think the iPad has gotten everyone to forget that there were "Tablet PCs" in these niche fields long before (hospitals etc). Enterprise could have easily bite if they were interested but didn't. Why would they now? Because the iPad have convinced them they now need tablet PC's, running full Windows?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    20th Aug 2010
  • RE: HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011
    @dave95. Uh, no keyboard, smaller, lighter, etc. There is a difference, and the "niche" fields already have some ultra mobile pcs (really tablets). These new versions are the newly improved models with better screens, higer resolutions, multi-touch capabilities, and the most important item: cheaper.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    G Computer Network
    20th Aug 2010
  • RE: HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011
    @G Computer Network

    Well I guess the dreaming will continue. If the enterprise had a real need for full Windows tablets, they would have bought them before. There were slates without keyboards way before. There were UMPCs that was small and lighter than the iPad, and cost just about the same as an iPad. Ran full Windows Vista or Windows 7.

    http://www.itechnews.net/2007/01/13/oqo-model-02-umpc/

    Apparently there's something uniquely special about devices like the iPad that's causing the enterprise to finally take notice.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    20th Aug 2010
  • Interesting. You have answered the question nicelly.
    Because the iPad have convinced them they now need tablet PC's, running full Windows?

    In a matter of speaking: yes. The iPad seems ill-suited for a large range of higher end tablet needs, So it's very shortcommings have likey show many a large corporation the need for a Windows 7 Tablet, as the iPad can not handle that which many had hoped it could.
    plain
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Mister Spock
    20th Aug 2010
  • That seems to be pure speculation on your part...
    @Mister Spock
    Besides there being something like a decade in which there were tablets running a version of Windows in the past. The incredible success of the iPad after said decade showed a very mild interest if any in previous tablet forms and finally the whole HP goes to the trouble and cost of purchasing Palm and now using WebOS on it's soon to be released tablet rather than Windows. In fact I'm not ever sure where you get to rational to make such wild guesses?

    Pagan jim
    ZDNet Gravatar
    James Quinn
    20th Aug 2010
  • Agilent does the medical stuff now days...
    @kyron.gustafson@...

    They split off way back around Y2K... They handled the medical side, and they are not planning a tablet...

    And the iPad/iPhone has the medical field covered... There's an App for that... several hundred as a matter of fact.

    I smell something... You guys smell that??? Smells like vapors... Could be that new HP Slate.. LOL
    ZDNet Gravatar
    i8thecat
    20th Aug 2010
  • Fascinating. Your fear of Windows
    has once again taken over your emotions to the point that you no longer seem capable of posting any logical arguments.

    Why does the thought of Windows tablets outselling the iPad terrify you to such a level?

    The iPad is only an inanimate object, nothing more.

    plain
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Mister Spock
    20th Aug 2010
  • I don't see any "fear" in this post
    @Mister Spock
    Please oh logical one point out where you picked up on his fear?

    I did however pick up humor at the thought of a Windows tablet that I got:)

    If you are unable to point out where the previous poster displayed fear you might want to reconsider your vaunted logic. Perhaps fan boy would be a better monicker?

    Pagan jim
    ZDNet Gravatar
    James Quinn
    20th Aug 2010
  • Mr. Quinn
    I must confess that I have never understood the human capacity to avoid a logical discussion when fear is involved.

    In this case Mr. "I Ate The Cat"'s ever continuing defense of all things "Anti-Microsoft" would likely indicate that he somehow fears that an offering featuring Microsoft as a choice will inevitably erode support for the object he has an emotional attachment to.

    I will agree that the iPad and even Android tablets have done well in sales, but looking at the sales numbers compared to the overall "buying public", logic would indicate that they are not what a great many people are waiting to purchase.

    So viewing the response here, one would have to logically conclude that the release of a Windows Tablet is somehow friegtening to i8thecat, as what should it matter to him if they release one or not, if it is not something he is interested in, unless he fears it will somehow impact his choice in tablets?

    I have noted that fear drives many a species to say and do quite illocical things.
    plain
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Mister Spock
    21st Aug 2010
  • You nor I actually knows what the buying public wants.
    @Mister Spock
    The iPad has existed for what 6 months or so now? Tablets before the iPad existed for roughly a decade or so. So we know what the buying public does not want but since Android tablets have yet to be released as far as I can tell and iPod has only been out for a very small time period it is very difficult to say based on these facts what the "general" buying public wants at this point. PC's have been around for many a decades now and still not every member of the buying public owns one. Laptops have been around for a shorter period of time than desktop PC's but none the less they have been available for a time and still not every member of the buying public owns one of those. The list goes on and on and on and the iPad has had a run of a few months now.

    Pagan jim
    ZDNet Gravatar
    James Quinn
    21st Aug 2010
  • RE: HP to launch webOS tablets in 2011
    @i8thecat

    Actually logic would indicate that the buying public don't want "Win Tablet PC's", base on sales in the consumer space. Have you ever seen anyone in public (coffee shop, restaurants) with a Tablet/slate PC since released in 2001? I haven't (failed in consumer space). I've seen at least 10 people with iPads in the shot 3 months it was released. Logic tells me any company releasing the same tablet pc in the market may meet the same fait.

    Win Tablet PCs are like Windows Mobile in the smart phone space. There probably still the few die-hards that swear it's still the greatest phone and OS but the rest of the public have moved on to more modern smart phones like iPhones, Androids.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    21st Aug 2010
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