When HP bought Palm, then shortly afterwards cancelled its Slate tablet, the smart money suggested a move to a webOS-based device. Now that smart money looks to have been a good investment…
After speaking with “an insider at HP”, examiner.com has confirmed an HP webOS tablet is being prepared for a Q3 launch.
It is codenamed ‘Hurricane’, and while examiner.com didn’t provide any specifications, it would seem obvious that it will be a 9- or 10-inch slate with Palm’s own slick multi-touch system, a higher screen resolution and the platform’s still best of breed multi-tasking. Backwards compatibility with existing webOS apps would also likely be a prerequisite, though with one of the smallest app catalogues on the market, it wouldn’t be losing too much were it to start afresh.
All of which confirms my earlier observations that PC makers are starting to identify tablets more with enhanced mobile phone operating systems rather than trying to dumb down and simplify desktop platforms.
The fallout from this could be very interesting, by bringing several companies’ platforms into direct opposition, such as Android and Chrome OS, as well as Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7, and potentially even iPhone OS and Mac OS X.
Furthermore, with smartbooks long promoting use of a mobile OS in their netbook-esque form factors it begs the question: are tablets now merely high profile smartbooks without keyboards…?
Gordon
