HP to start selling WebOS 3.0-based TouchPad in April
First-tier notebook brand vendor Hewlett-Packard (HP) is set to start selling its WebOS 3.0-based tablet PC, TouchPad in April with shipments to start delivery by the end of March, according to sources from HP's upstream component partners.
Context & Ripple Effects
The webOS tablet HP first flagged in August 2010 has moved from roadmap to retail timing: DigiTimes' upstream component-source claim puts TouchPad shipments by end of March and sales from April, roughly two months after HP's formal TouchPad unveiling at its February event, where it also introduced the Veer smartphone. That cadence matters because an earlier source had pointed to a June window with a rumored $699 price, so the April date — if real — lands HP's answer to the iPad well before summer.
The report is unconfirmed supply-chain chatter rather than an HP statement, and no syndicated pickups or public reaction are recorded around it, which keeps confidence modest even though it fits everything HP has said publicly since acquiring Palm's webOS.
First-order effects
- HP's upstream component partners would need to ramp TouchPad parts through March for an end-of-month shipment start, making supplier volumes the first verifiable signal of whether the April date holds.
- A spring launch puts HP's 9.7-inch webOS slate on shelves against Apple's established iPad within its first sales year, with the rumored $699 price point leaving HP little room to compete on anything but software integration.
Second-order effects
- Carriers and retailers stocking the Veer alongside the TouchPad would be selling into a two-device webOS story, pressuring them to give shelf space and subsidies to a third ecosystem alongside iOS and Android.
- App developers face a fork: investing in a third platform whose installed base starts near zero, versus concentrating on iOS and Android where the buyers already are.
Third-order effects
- If the April date slips again, it reinforces the pattern that hardware announcements are outpacing OS maturity for PC vendors that bought their way into mobile software — the gap between unveil and shelf being the tell for whether webOS scales beyond Palm's installed base.
- For the broader industry, HP's bet tests whether a first-tier notebook maker can sustain a proprietary mobile OS against platform incumbents, or whether tablets consolidate around two ecosystems and licensed-OS players.
The trend: PC incumbents that acquired their own mobile operating systems — HP with Palm's webOS chief among them — are racing to convert acquisitions into shipping tablets before the market locks around incumbent ecosystems.