I'm honestly surprised that so few people have challenged this story, especially given the source (Examiner.com, which I've never known to get a tech scoop about anything).
For starters, the merger hasn't even closed yet and isn't expected to for at least a few more weeks, if not months (they said when the acquisition was announced that it should be completed by July 31st). Even under the best of circumstances it simply takes time to create new hardware, especially when you're working with a new operating system for the first-time. I'd be surprised if they could even have prototypes ready for testing by Q3.
It is entirely possible that Palm has already been working on a tablet, which would save some time, but given how dire Palm's situation has been up until this point it seems unlikely that they would have had the resources to devote to this. Remember, this is a company that was hanging by a thread until HP came along. They surely would have been putting everything possible into their smartphone efforts, since those are what the fate of the company hinged upon.
I would love to see a webOS tablet as much as anyone, but anything released in Q3 of this year would almost certainly be half-baked and not-ready-for-primetime.
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I'd love to be wrong here, but I'm very skeptical about these reports that HP is going to come out with a webOS-based tablet in Q3 of this year.
Examiner.com is a city-based freelance blog. Every city has their own site, and anyone can apply to write for it. I did the Des Moines Internet blog for a while to make some cash. It's basically Wikipedia. If anyone can write for it, the credibility is zero.
The other possibility is that there were Palm and HP teams already collaborating on a potential tablet before the acquisition went down. I've heard a few vibes along those lines. In fact, that may have even been one of the primary catalysts of the acquisition.
However, if there was no joint work already in progress then I agree that Q3 is extremely aggressive and a Q3 product is likely to be a half-baked disappointment.
However, if there was no joint work already in progress then I agree that Q3 is extremely aggressive and a Q3 product is likely to be a half-baked disappointment.
Totally agree on all points and tweeted my skepticism of the timing yesterday. Aside from all the points you mentioned, webOS on the phone has been slow to mature - there are still little nits to be addressed. Palm will need to adjust for higher screen resolutions that a successful tablet will need and work with developers to allow for adjustments like that. I don't see that happening so quickly and if it does, I agree that such a product would be half-baked.
Well - whatever it is, they'd better do it quickly. If they leave it until late next year as a typical product rollout might be, they'll need the US debt in marketing dollars to make any dent at all on the iPad.
If they left it that late, they'd be not against not only Apple and the iPad, but also Google and the Chrome OS tablet. With two heavyweights like that fighting over the top spot in the market, and who already have experience in making modern mobile devices, a newcomer like HP is going to have some real problems gaining mindshare, never mind marketshare.
Indeed - you might need to 'Cowon it up'. Especially if you're on what is after all a minor-league proprietary platform.
Totally agree with you on this one, Peter. The whole concept of having a webOS-based tablet is simply too amazing to not be considered, which I believe is the reason for the hype. Also, HP sort of hinted that on the announcement by showing off their slate in the presentation.
By Q3, I doubt it. Seriously. Probably they'll pull off another webOS smartphone in that time, who knows. However, webOS simply makes a lot of sense in a tablet and "H/Pre", as Gartenberg said on his Entelligence column recently, "will ultimately have to prove itself in a fast moving market place. The core ingredients are there, but it's time to execute the recipe and sell the dish."
By Q3, I doubt it. Seriously. Probably they'll pull off another webOS smartphone in that time, who knows. However, webOS simply makes a lot of sense in a tablet and "H/Pre", as Gartenberg said on his Entelligence column recently, "will ultimately have to prove itself in a fast moving market place. The core ingredients are there, but it's time to execute the recipe and sell the dish."
Peter and I talked about this briefly on the show, but one should figure at LEAST 12 months, if not 18 or 24, for most any kind of device to go from concept to retail sales (and even that can be aggressive). Those expecting a webOS tablet this year really should not get their hopes up!
Not sure why they'd bother. Isn't Chrome OS due out relatively soon?
The only way I could see this actually being true would be if HP had an Android tablet in the works internally, w. no one outside having knowledge of it, but I'd highly doubt that. Android would be ARM based and that would work w/ webOS
