HP: TouchPad isn't meant to take down the iPad
updated 09:50 pm EDT, Thu June 30, 2011
HP interview says Apple not a main TouchPad goal
Rivalling the iPad isn't the TouchPad's goal, HP Worldwide Developer Relations head Richard Kerris said in an interview on the eve of the webOS tablet's launch. The company saw there being "room for both" the TouchPad and the iPad to expand in the tablet space. Much of the focus for webOS would be on enterprise use and a primarily Windows PC-focused audience, Kerris told The Loop, with the platform going deep enough to reach PCs themselves next year.
Kerris added that HP wasn't presuming it could usurp Apple's control of the tablet market. Dislodging the iPad wasn't likely, and Apple had set a high bar.
"We think the world of Apple and have the utmost respect for their products," he said. "It would be ignorant for us to say that we are going to take [control] away from Apple."
HP's main goal would be to create a complete ecosystem where every device is talking to each other. WebOS devices like the TouchPad can already pass information back and forth with a phone such as the Veer. Long-term goals will ultimately have webOS in the previously mentioned PCs and go so far as printers.
The TouchPad still faces an uphill battle for adoption. It has faced mixed early reviews and complaints of rushed software that won't be fixed until updates in a few weeks' time. Some of its immediate advantages, such as calendar, e-mail, file, and photo sync, give it an edge for now but will be negated once iOS 5 arrives and iCloud can sync many things online. Promised music and movie services for the TouchPad have yet to materialize.
Expectations here may regardless be more realistic than for other tablet makers. Although unconfirmed, RIM is rumored to have drastically scaled back PlayBook estimates after a solid but lukewarm launch dashed hopes of reaching iPad-level numbers. Most Android tablet makers have sold only a few hundred thousand a quarter at most and have again been rumored dialing back expectations after presuming they would repeat in tablets what they had in phones.
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Intelligent Perspective
Wow, with comments like that, you'd almost think HP actually knows what it's doing.
This appears to be a reasonable, thought-out, realistic plan of action, and all-around a pretty smart course to chart. It's a little ignorant to insinuate that going after Windows PC users isn't what Apple is doing--after all, the iPad is apparently doing a number on Windows-based netbooks and cheaper notebooks--but if HP gets a cheap desktop running their own OS out, it might (emphasis on might--it's a huge gamble) really shake things up.
And in an entirely related note, some MS exec must be apoplectic with a combination of rage and panic right now. Their biggest customer--literally, as HP is the biggest PC vendor, and almost exclusively sells boxes running Windows--has not only started selling tablets with their own OS rather than MS's, but they're explicitly planning on starting to sell desktops running it, and possibly even licensing it.