HP's webOS Tablet Will Be 'Similar to the iPad'
At this point, it seems to be equal parts folly and necessity to compare a tablet to the Apple iPad. HP is simply the most recent company to do so, promising than its upcoming tablet will be "similar to the iPad."
Months ago, HP said it was making a tablet that would run the webOS mobile operating system it acquired from Palm. Now the company is revealing more details about the tablet planned for an early 2011 release .
In an email to the Palm Developer Community, HP's Peter Helm wrote, "Now that we are officially part of HP, we are going full speed ahead with our applications initiative. Our proprietary operating system, webOS, is now the OS that will be used in HP's mobile devices. This includes mobile handsets as well as tablet-style devices similar to the iPad. We will accordingly leverage Palm's ability to innovate and the scale of HP's vast install base and distribution network previously unavailable to us."
While that quote is vague about the details, it's clear that HP intends to compete in the new tablet market, and with more than the Zeen tablet that is tethered to HP's new line of printers. The Palm Developer Community is also the main source of apps for the webOS platform. If HP plans to truly compete with the iPad and with the mountain of Android tablets , the company will need to have an ever-growing ecosystem of apps to expand functionality.
