Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/07/hp_denies_shipping_touchpad_tablets_with_android/

HP denies shipping TouchPad tablets with Android

Probe launched

By Tony Smith

Posted in Personal Tech, 7th October 2011 10:43 GMT

HP is investigating why an unknown number of TouchPad WebOS tablets may have been sold with Android on board.

It denies shipping TouchPads with Android installed, even in error.

Claims that some TouchPads had gone out with Android loaded in place of HP's WebOS recently did the rounds on the internet.

That prompted not unreasonable grumbles from the open source community - quite a few members of which have bought TouchPads when HP sold them off cheap - that HP should then have posted its source code.

That would help coders working to port Android to the HP tablet.

In response to a request for said source code, Phil Robb, who runs HP's open source operation, emailed to say the Android release - if it took place at all - was not done with HP's say-so.

"We have confirmed that HP never authorised the distribution of any version of Android on the HP TouchPad," he told coders.

"From a review of our manufacturing process, we believe that all TouchPad units have been shipped out of manufacturing with the WebOS operating system only, and that no TouchPad units were shipped with Android, even by mistake."

If any TouchPads have arrived in users' hands with Android on board, it was installed on top of WebOS "by some person or persons unknown… strictly against the policy and authorisation of HP", Robb wrote.

"It is a significant detriment to HP and HP’s participation in and relationship with the open source community to have non-authorised Android software delivered on HP TouchPad devices," he said. ®