According to Engadget, Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley informed HP employees yesterday that the company is planning on introducing a webOS tablet sometime in Q1 of 2011. Sources say it is indeed codenamed “Hurricane”. Of course, CES is the biggest consumer electronics event of the year, so we suspect that will be the perfect stage for such an unveiling.
No word on the status of any new smartphones, but we have think Palm’s roadmap had some planned for this year.
I’m worried that Q1 next year may be too late. The iPad will have the holiday season to gain ground and rest assured that Apple is working on a second version which could steal some thunder from a webOS product as early as Spring 2011…HP needs to move up their time table if they really want to compete or they will always be two steps behind. If they wait until Q1 2011 their tablet will have to be aimed at competing with future products and not just slightly better than products already on the market.
no doubt. They are truly missing the market for smartphones as well.
Between the Mass Palm-lover exodus due to Overdue webOS hardware update (not even rumors Yet! of one to come), and the newbie-smartphone-adopters going Android (they have no Idea what they are missing out on webOS –anything’s better than a flip phone! ), HP’s going to have a difficult time getting people to SWITCH to their OS, hardware, brand, and new way of doing things. Nobody likes to loose their smartphone databases, apps, and way of doing things. The major market was in getting people to move from basic phone devices Up to Your brand of Smartphone, and holding on to your own fan-base! Once the adoption has been made it takes a Strong Force to get someone to jump ship onto a new platform. And HP isn’t a sexy sounding company! (unlike Apple and Google).
Also, although webOS was set the curve, without major updates, it’s quickly falling to play catch-up to Android. It used to amaze me when new Android users were awed by it’s features that had been showcased by Palm a year before.
Again I keep rooting for HP-Palm-webOS, but “PalmPad”!?? Cummon! Gross. That name is such a FLOP! I’m embarrased to mention the name, let alone Sport around a product called as such. How am I supposed to promote one to my friends, even if it does turn out to be revolutionary? Pleeze Rename Before Bringing it to Market. The words don’t even flow together -it’s like a tongue twisting maxi-pad. Unfortunately HP and Palm just don’t have what it takes in the marketing venue. Hire a marketing-design-genuis to take over the smartphone and slate promotions. WebOS rocks (or could).
Above all, Get some hardware out. It’s too late already.. Tho, I keep trolling around for some good news, I’m a Palm hold-out who’s given up!
-jilted.
It would be perfect if the webos tablet comes ready for the LTE/wimax networks, and with dual core processor, front camera, at least 160 GB HDD, minimum 2GB RAM, Flash Adobe Player, BT3.0, USB 3.0, WIFI,MIFI, easy to sync with palm webos phones and office editable.