When other companies decide to unveil items to rival Apple’s three jewels you never really give them much chance of taking off. It’s like back at school when most people had a jazzy pair of Adidas sneakers with the three stripes and one kid trotted in with a pair of two-stripes. They’re just not the same.
Although as far as tablet PCs are concerned, just the sheer numbers being bought will be enough to satisfy many of those working on content for the devices in the online gaming industry.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is entering market with the TouchPad tablet, but the problem might not be that they’re only going up against Apple. Their device will be running the operating system developed by Palm, webOS, meaning that HP will also be going up against Google’s Android technology. Anyone that saw the PlayStation phone ad from the Super Bowl will know that could be a rather sobering experience.
“Our intention with webOS devices is to transform how people think, how they feel and how they connect,” Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s personal systems group, told a room full of reporters, analysts and developers.
The TouchPad is expected to be on shelves in the summer, and if Android and Apple continue with their success it could be off the shelves by this time next year. There is still time for them to develop something unique that will give them a different spin to the other two companies. We suggest getting together with Japanese robot developers so that your TouchPad can also perform menial tasks such as the washing up. Now that’d be a selling point!
