Hewlett-Packard engineers did dare pull unthinkable: They hacked iPad to install webOS only to find out Apple’s hardware runs their mobile operating system more than twice as fast compared to their own TouchPad hardware, a source “close to the subject” told The Next Web. The finding had devastating effects on the team’s morale:
The hardware reportedly stopped the team from innovating beyond certain points because it was slow and imposed constraints, which was highlighted when webOS was loaded on to Apple’s iPad device and found to run the platform significantly faster than the device for which it was originally developed. It should be pointed out that webOS runs on Qualcomm ARM chips while iPad 2 runs on Samsung silicon. This little nugget is even more revealing:
With a focus on web technologies, webOS could be deployed in the iPad’s Mobile Safari browser as a web-app; this produced similar results, with it running many times faster in the browser than it did on the TouchPad. In fact, the webOS team wanted HP’s TouchPad and Pre hardware “gone” even before the products hit the marketplace according to TNW. With a hardware refresh a year off and similar issues with the Pre phones, this could have contributed to the decision to shutter the webOS and perhaps license it out to other companies (with better hardware).
In a separate report, TNW details how the news was broken to the webOS group within HP.
Almost everyone at HP found out about the death of the TouchPad and Pre hardware as the public did, in the press release. Only the top executives knew anything about this decision and even senior staff as high as Ari Jaaksi, the Vice President of webOS software, didn’t know about the shuttering of hardware before it happened. After the press release came out, there was a company wide meeting filled with a bunch of ‘corporate speak’, in which staff were told that they were going to be in limbo for 3-4 weeks.
It’s worth mentioning Hewlett and Packard were Jobs’ heroes growing up. It is also worth recalling that the company saw absolutely no value in Wozniak’s original personal computer design and laughed him off. The Woz then went on to create the original Apple I, he founded a company with Steve Jobs that put personal computing on the map, the same market Hewlett-Packard would spectacularly exit 34 years later. The rest, as they say, is history.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Hewlett-Packard, the leading computer maker in the world, is about to announce that it will be spinning off its personal computer business, excluding printers, storage or networking. In a just released statement via BusinessWire, the computer maker offically confirmed its board of directors has authorized “the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG), which may include “a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction.
Quoting the obligatory “people familiar with the matter”, the paper further writes that HP “is close to a $10 billion deal to acquire U.K. software firm Autonomy Corp.” The spin off announcement is expected later today as the computer maker reports quarterly earnings. Shockingly, HP is abandoning its webOS devices, from their release:
In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward. And here’s the most interesting bit from the Journal’s story:
As part of Hewlett-Packard’s planned spin off of its personal computer business, it will keep the webOS software business but let go of the hardware, meaning HP is shutting down its tablets business, people familiar with the matter said. H-P’s tablet is the TouchPad, an iPad rival that went on sale in July starting at $499. Earlier this month, HP cut its price 20 percent. HP got webOS when it acquired Palm Inc. in April 2010 for $1.2 billion. H-P may license the webOS software to others, the people added. Mind you, not that HP pulling Kin matters in the greater scheme of things because the TouchPad didn’t even blip on Apple’s radar, but separating the personal computer business from their enterprise group could present Apple with an ample opportunity to grow Mac sales. Earlier today, a DisplaySearch survey revealed that – if you count tablets as PCs – Apple has now officially become the world’s leading PC manufacturer with a 21.4 percent share, passing HP in sales by four million units.
As our Seth Weintraub puts it, “the leading PC hardware company just exited all hardware”. And here’s your food for thought if you’re still tripping on this: Perhaps HP will be selling their intellectual property to Google, Apple or Microsoft, giving a potential suitor plenty of ammo for patent battles. Dang, talk about slow news day!
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Steve Jobs at iPad 2 introduction in March 2011 rhetorically asked if 2011 “will be year of the copycats”, highlighting several times the iPad’s attractive selling price as a big advantages.
The billions in profits from iOS gadgets that Apple strategically invests to pre-pay long-term component deals is a crucial enabling factor that has been allowing the company to over time bring down the prices and make its gear more and more affordable to the growing number of consumers. Nowhere is this more evident than with iPad, which debuted with a “breakthrough” price of five hundred bucks, originally pricing the vast majority of competing tablets out of the market.
Despite a recent Strategy Analytics survey asserting Android’s share of the tablet market in June 2011 at 30 percent, in reality those numbers are inflated as all competing devices (which, by the way, include borderline devices such as e-readers and de-featured tablets) struggle to make it past store shelves. It’s the difference between shipping and actually selling something: iPad gets picked by millions of consumers each quarter whereas Apple’s rivals settle with channel shipments. Realizing their products are collecting dust on store shelves, tablet makers are scrambling to slash prices once again in a last-minute effort to “digest inventory overstock”, reports DigiTimes, an Asian trade publication:
Non-Apple tablet PC players, facing the fact their devices are having weaker sales than their order volumes, while demand from the retail channel has been quickly shrinking, are expected to start cutting their tablet prices by the end of September to digest inventory and minimize losses, and the decisions are expected to trigger a new price war within the tablet industry, according to sources from notebook players. The latest price cuts will arrive on top of the already slashed prices forcing Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Asustek and Acer to offer their products from as low as $370. The sources talk about “at least two waves of price cuts from the end of September to the year-end holiday”, possibly reducing the average price of non-Apple tablets further to $300. It should come as a surprise that underpricing iPad is no guarantee of success because technology alone (and price) “is not enough”, as Apple boasts in its cool iPad commercials (you need apps, too!). Apple could also pull the iPhone 4-3GS trick with the iPad, selling iPad 2 at a reduced price of, say, $350, as the $499 iPad 3 debuts. One thing’s for sure: 2011 won’t be the year of copycats. So, who’s not selling their warez?
According to the report, it’s pretty much most of non-Apple tablet players. By the way, don’t you find it interesting how the media is increasingly referring to other tablets as “non-Apple” or “non-iPad”? This is another indication that the tablet market is pretty much all iPad, despite what questionable surveys would have you believe. The report goes on to note that Asustek shipped 700,000 tablet units from May to July, but sold only 500,000 units. It gets worse for others. Acer is “gradually reducing” orders and Samsung and Motorola are seeing weaker-than-expected demand for their products, too. And with Apple barring Samsung from selling their Galaxy Tab in Australia and the European Union, Samsung’s tablet prospects won’t get any better this year. The same applies to BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and HTC, with both companies “already placing their hopes in 2012″.
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HP today enlarged the HP webOS world with the first webOS slate – the HP TouchPad.
With its vibrant 9.7-inch diagonal flush capacitive multitouch display, virtual keyboard, instant-on access, support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta in the browser and access to thousands of webOS applications, TouchPad works the way you do and is designed not just for fun but for mobile productivity. It’s ideal for anyone who wants the benefits of the amazing webOS platform on a much bigger scale. TouchPad is one of the products HP announced today to introduce a unique experience for customers around connected mobility, offering a unified experience for the first time across a variety of devices. It’s one of the building blocks in HP’s vision to seamlessly connect all your worlds through the power of HP webOS.
TouchPad works the way you do The TouchPad user interface is a visual representation of your workspace, so you can manage your workflow in a naturally intuitive way that’s easy and fun. The power of webOS true multitasking lets you have multiple applications running at the same time. webOS shows you your activities in the form of cards, not a sea of application icons on numerous home screens.
This helps you do all the things you want to do, all at once, so you can listen to music, update your status on Facebook, read email and chat on IM at the same time. As you launch new activities, webOS will automatically group related cards – for example, an email and an associated web page – together in a card stack, so you can easily track all related items together.
TouchPad also features a webOS communication suite powered by HP Synergy that keeps you connected and creative, making all of your communications simpler, richer and in your control. It’s a complete solution, including email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar, videos and a front-facing camera for video calling.(6) Connected photo albums make it easy to share and view your pictures directly from popular services such as Facebook, Snapfish and Photobucket. It works seamlessly with TouchPad’s user interface for a natural and efficient experience.
Around the house or on the go TouchPad offers a great internet experience around the house or on the go, so you can manage your busy life, be productive wherever you are and stay connected with work, friends, family and social networks. It keeps you connected anywhere there’s Wi-Fi for easy access to the web and entertainment.
At home, whether you’re watching TV, relaxing on the sofa, at the kitchen table or in bed, you can check in with friends, surf the web, play games or read a book, magazine or newspaper. Amazon.com today announced that it will launch a free Kindle app for HP webOS tailored for TouchPad that will give you access to more than 810,000 titles from Amazon’s Kindle Store. You also can subscribe to popular magazine titles, such as Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and People, and download movies and TV shows through the HP Movie Store. The TouchPad music app lets you transfer and play all your favorites from your personal music collection, with amazing sound quality by Beats Audio™. You can start an email, create a message, update your status, search your favorite websites – all before you’ve even opened an application. Whenever you want to do something on your TouchPad, Just Type.
Buy and sell on Amazon.com, do your banking, buy movie tickets from Fandango or check the news. Whether your thing is Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, IM, video calling or email, TouchPad brings it all together with thousands of available webOS applications and the convenience and power of HP Synergy for integrated contacts and calendar to keep your busy life on track.
It’s great for road trips, on a plane, while commuting, in public places, while visiting friends and on vacation. It’s easy to pack, has a long-lasting battery and integrated GPS (3G only), and posting vacation photos is a snap.
Mobile productivity When productivity is key, TouchPad makes an excellent companion. You can read and write email, view your work and personal inboxes together, or easily toggle between them. Integrated messaging conveniently combines all your text messages, picture messages and IM conversations with one person into a single view, and you can connect through SMS, Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo! Messenger.(4)
TouchPad’s virtual full QWERTY keyboard includes a number row, which reduces keyboard switching, making typing easy and fast. It powers on instantly and brings you back to exactly where you left off, whether you were in the middle of composing an email, playing a game or browsing a web page. With webOS true multitasking, it’s like you never left.
For maximum productivity, HP is working with Quickoffice to include the Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite, which lets you view and edit documents, such as Microsoft Word and Excel. It also comes with VPN support to connect to corporate networks.
With its 1.3-megapixel front-facing webcam, TouchPad offers video calling capability.(11) It’s also compatible with HP’s industry-leading printing solutions, so you can wirelessly print documents, photos and emails to compatible wireless and networked HP printers.(12)
TouchPad has built-in HP Touchstone technology for easy charging, so it’s compatible out of the box with the HP Touchstone for TouchPad (sold separately), and you can charge in either portrait or landscape mode, even without removing the TouchPad case (sold separately). The webOS Exhibition feature lets you run applications designed specifically for Touchstone. Set your TouchPad on Touchstone and Exhibition launches automatically, showing you anything from today’s agenda to a slideshow of your photos.(13)
TouchPad is one of three webOS products announced today (see separate announcements for HP Veer and HP Pre3). Each product plays a distinct role in the growing webOS family, designed to meet the varying needs of customers in a rapidly evolving mobile landscape.
Availability HP TouchPad is scheduled to be available in the summer. Exact pricing and availability will be announced at a later date.
HP TouchPad features and specs ● HP webOS ● High-speed connectivity(1) ● Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-CPU APQ8060 1.2-GHz processor ● 9.7-inch diagonal XGA capacitive, multitouch screen with a vibrant, 18-bit color, 1,024 x 768 resolution display ● The option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage ● High-performance browser with full access to the web, including support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta for access to rich, Flash-based web content ● Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication A-GPS (3G only) Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support ● Multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, and a 3.5 mm headset/headphone/microphone jack ● Internal stereo speakers and Beats Audio ● Front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for live video calling ● Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP) ● Robust messaging support ● Light sensor, accelerometer, compass (magnetometer) and gyroscope ● Rechargeable 6,300 mAh (typical) battery ● Micro-USB (Charging and PC Connect) with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed ● Built-in HP Touchstone technology for easy charging (HP Touchstone for TouchPad sold separately) and HP touch-to-share to share web addresses between TouchPad and compatible webOS phones ● Dimensions: 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm (7.48 inches x 9.53 inches x .54 inches) ● Weight: approximately 740 g (1.6 pounds).
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FoxNews has obtained specs sheets for HP's unannounced PalmPad that will reportedly debut at CES 2011.
HP will introduce three models of the PalmPad at CES, with minor hardware differences distinguishing them. All three will run a new iteration of the WebOS operating system, version 2.5.1; they're collectively a spin-off of the never-released HP Slate. A fourth version won't be shown off at CES, I'm told, but it will be custom made for university students to prove how versatile the machines can be.
The consumer PalmPad is very similar to the iPad but it will run on Sprint's 4G network, it has a mini HDMI port, and front- and rear-facing cameras (1.3 megapixel and 3 megapixel, respectively), both with LED flashes.
Fox describes the PalmPad as "slightly thinner than the iPad with rounded edges closer to the Amazon Kindle". It weights 1.25 lbs, offers USB 3.0 connectivity and features multi-switch similar to the Palm Pre.
The university PalmPad is said to have a smaller 8.9-inch screen and will access university internal educational software.
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