According to HP, whose webOS TouchPad tablet releases this Friday, they are not aiming at knocking the crown off Apple’s iPad just yet. Instead, the company seems content with being #2. Tablets like RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola XOOM and the legion of Android-based tablets, are all targets. Can HP best these players and if so, what will that mean for iPad sales?
We have a better solution with WebOS. Let’s go after the RIMs and the Androids. We have a strong play there: a better UI that’s more consistent. -Richard Kerris, VP of worldwide developer relations for WebOS
HP’s plan to offer a happy medium, somewhere between Apple’s walled garden and the Wild Wild West lawlessness of Google’s Android system. HP’s bread and butter is enterprise, so their tablet sales are likely to reflect that. Beyond that, HP can get creative in packages to enterprise and boost their sales with their foaming-at-the-mouth sales force. There’s a lot here that Motorola, Samsung et al can’t touch.
The formal reviews of the TouchPad are due to drop in the coming days. Comparisons will likely be drawn to both the iPad and Android tablets. Here’s our prediction: overall glowing reviews on the OS and hardware (something new for a webOS product) and they’ll get marked down for lack of apps.
We’ll all get to judge this on Friday.
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