Hewlett-Packard will likely introduce its webOS tablet as well as other products at a media event next month, a senior HP executive said, giving further definition to the company's mobile plans and the future of Palm's operating system.
In an interview on CNBC, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, strongly hinted that the company will unveil its new tablet at an event the company is hosting Feb. 9 in San Francisco. "We think of this broadly as, the tablet is one piece of that ecosystem, one piece of that connected experience that we're going to create," he said. Bradley added that the announcement will showcase "the future of webOS and the breadth of products it will effect, that it will enable."
Interestingly, Bradley said that the company accepts that the world is going mobile, and that HP will focus on "How do we create that connected experience that allows you safely, seamlessly access that content that's so important to you?"
HP has said little about its future plans for webOS, although Jon Rubinstein, who is now the senior vice president and general manager of the Palm Global Business Unit at HP, said in December that HP is "very jazzed about webOS," and said he was excited about new smartphone and tablet opportunities in 2011.
According to a Fox News report from December, HP is planning multiple tablets. The news outfit, which said it obtained specification sheets for the tablets from an unnamed source, said all three tablets will have 9.7-inch screens, run a new version of webOS (2.5.1), have HDMI-out ports and front- and rear-facing cameras (1.3 megapixels and 3 -megapixels, respectively). The tablets will carry the "PalmPad" moniker but with slightly different hardware specs. A fourth tablet with an 8.9-inch screen is planned for the fall of next year, the report said.
For more:
- see this Engadget post
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