Brits told how much they'll pay for HP TouchPad
iPad pricing for 9.7in WebOS tablet
HP has begun taking orders for its WebOS-based tablet, the TouchPad.
World+Dog are reporting that HP's US operation and retail partners have priced up the 9.7in tablet, but British buyers can also put in an advance order too.
So, HP wants £399 for the 16GB model, £479 for the 32GB version - exactly what Apple is asking for the equivalent iPads 2s.
Both are driven by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and sport 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 1.3Mp webcam too.
The 240 x 190 x 14mm gadget weighs 740g.
The TouchPad, as HP revealed t'other week, ships in July. ®
COMMENTS
Same price as an iPad?
You've got to be kidding. Their competitors seemed determined to hand the market to Apple. HP are new entrants to the market with no obvious advantages up against a mind-blowingly strong competitor. It doesn't take a genius...
Beggars Belief
Honestly, the ipad has the headstart on the market, everyone else is playing catch up. So you have to wonder why HP think people would buy this device if they can just get an ipad instead?
Even if it is *better* than the ipad HP have no market traction.
I'm sure there will be 100 geeky el reg commentards who pop up to decry The Cult of Jobs, The Walled Garden and all the other criticisms that are (sometimes deservedly) pointed at Cupertino but that's not the point, geeky commentards will be buying netbooks anyway because they can't use a tablet to run Matlab and code PHP on the train.
So why would your average suburban Joe or Jane choose HP over apple? They don't care that the HP has dual core snapdragon, they care that the app store has a shed load of fart apps.
Does HP have an app store? I'm guessing they do.
Is it bigger or better than the apple one?
Somehow I doubt it. Not at this point anyway, and if they want it to grow to match apple they will need punters, lots of punters, to attract the devs.
Pricing like this is unlikely to attract the number of punters they will require to make a sustainable ecosystem around webOS, which is a shame.
A damned shame, really. It's probably quite nice.
File in the open top filing cabinet along with the PlayBook
No smaller, faster, sexier or with as many apps.
And now no cheaper. Why would anyone get this instead of an iPad.
U really like the look of WebOS, but HP needs to do more than this to hope to compete.
if i am going to pay for...
an iPad i want an iPad - not a copy iPad, ask RIM they will explain it.
