Photos: HP launches TouchPad, Pre3 and Veer

HP announces three new webOS devices, including the first webOS slate...

HP has announced three new devices based on the webOS operating system it acquired when it bought smartphone maker Palm for $1.2bn last year. The trio of devices includes the first webOS slate, the HP TouchPad, shown above.

The TouchPad features instant-on access, a virtual keyboard, a 9.7-inch touchscreen and support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for web browsing. Thousands of webOS applications are also available on the device.

This photo shows the back view of the HP TouchPad.

The release of a webOS tablet device had been the subject of much speculation since the announcement of HP's acquisition of Palm last April. The acquisition led analysts to predict that an HP tablet device could one day rival Apple's iPad.

The TouchPad is slimmer than the HP Slate 500, which was launched last year.

The HP Slate 500, unveiled in October, is primarily aimed at businesses, while the HP TouchPad is targeted more at the consumer. However, in a statement about the launch, HP said the TouchPad was "designed not just for fun but for mobile productivity".

The HP Pre3 smartphone is aimed at business users and powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.4GHz processor.

According to HP, the smartphone also supports an industry-standard VPN, which will allow users to connect to corporate networks.

HP Veer, the second smartphone to be launched by HP on Wednesday, is designed to offer the features of a smartphone in a smaller device. Veer supports Abode Flash Player 10.1 for Flash-based web browsing and allows users to access apps and social networks.

Veer is the smallest webOS smartphone to date. HP said the device is the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards.

HP announced it would use only webOS for its smartphones last year when the company moved away from Android and Microsoft operating systems.

This photo shows the back of the 103g HP Veer smartphone, which is powered by an 800MHz processor and sports a 2.6-inch screen.

HP recently made its first move into cloud computing with the launch of its infrastructure-as-a-service division, Enterprise Cloud Services-Compute.