The HP TouchPad is a tablet computer that was developed and designed by Hewlett-Packard. The HP TouchPad was launched on July 1, 2011, in the United States; July 15 in Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany; and August 15 in Australia.How Green Is The HP TouchPad? , by Scott Belmon, August 18, 2011, Belmonster
On August 18, 2011, 49 days after the TouchPad was launched in the United States, HP announced that it would discontinue all current devices running webOS. Remaining TouchPad stock received substantial price reductions, and quickly sold out.
History The HP TouchPad was announced on February 9, 2011, at the webOS "Think Beyond" event held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco alongside the HP Veer and HP Pre 3.
Initial sales of the device sold 25,000 of 270,000 units, and did not meet HP's expectations, rapidly becoming overshadowed by the launch of the iPad 2 in March. On August 16, 2011, it was reported that Best Buy refused to pay HP for any more TouchPad stock. In Europe, the TouchPad was estimated to have sold 12,000 in its first month of release. In Australia, Harvey Norman who was the exclusive retailer sold about 1,200 units in the four days it was on sale. Industry commentators suggested that the lack of apps for the platform and lackluster advertising was hindering sales. On August 18, HP announced that it would discontinue all webOS devices.HP Confirms Discussions with Autonomy Corporation plc Regarding Possible Business Combination; Makes Other Announcements, Aug. 18, 2011, News Release, Hewlett-Packard Development Company HP CTO Shane Robison noted that the TouchPad "was half a generation or a generation behind the iPad and so that wasn't going to drive volume." Some years later, a member of the development team described the device as being made from "cast-off reject iPad parts."
On August 19, 2011, HP announced a substantial price drop on the TouchPad. In Canada and the USA, the price was $99 for the 16 GB model and $149 for the 32 GB model and quickly sold out.HP Issues TouchPad Liquidation Order – Get Yours Now For $100, By Devin Coldewey, August 19, 2011, TechCrunch Large numbers of buyers acquired the TouchPad at these "firesale" prices. Most brick-and-mortar retailers reportedly sold out their entire inventories within hours the morning of August 20. Online retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and Best Buy, took orders on August 22 that rapidly exceeded their inventory, and were forced to cancel many orders.TouchPad Backlash: Retailers Say 'Sorry' For Order Errors, By David Daw, Aug 23, 2011, PCWorld A similar sale was held in Australian Harvey Norman stores, with several stores selling out their inventory within an hour.Chris Griffith, August 22, 2011, Harvey Norman sells HP TouchPad at $100, The AustralianMoses and Grubb, Aug 22, 2011,HP TouchPad fire sale: slashed from $499 to $99 in a week, The Border Mail Similar sales took place in the UK with several stores reducing prices (£89 for the 16 GB and £115 for the 32 GB), and the HP TouchPad became the tablet with the highest approval rating.The Lonesome Success of the HP TouchPad Aug 9, 2011,TouchPad fire sale: slashed from $499 to $99 in a week , Andrew Savory HP TouchPad stock immediately sold out domestically and overseas from consumers rushing to take advantage of the price promotion.
Following this successful sale,, By Brian Heater, Aug 22, 2011, Engadget and to clear out their component suppliers' inventories of touch panels, batteries, and chassis,Digitimes: HP to produce 100,000–200,000 TouchPads to clear out supplier inventories Yenting Chen, Sept 2, 2011 HP announced on August 30 that it would make another production run of the TouchPad. , By Mark Budgell, Aug 30, 2011 These units were used to fulfill existing orders to businesses like Tiger Direct and Best Buy, in bundles with a set price of $249.99 and $299.99.
Following Meg Whitman's appointment as CEO of HP, in conjunction with an announcement of the company's plans to continue developing webOS as an open-source operating system, she said that the company would continue using the OS in devices, specifically resuming its use in tablets. She said this would not happen in 2012, but would probably take place in 2013.HP’s Whitman: We’ll Make WebOS-Powered Tablets In 2013; December 9, 2011.HP May Make webOS Hardware, Current Devices to Get Updates; December 9, 2011. In February 2013, HP sold the source code and transferred the remaining webOS team to LG, effectively ending the webOS' deployment in tablets and consumer products.HP emerges as big winner in webOS sale, and LG doesn't rule out a phone. The Verge (2013-02-25). Retrieved on 2013-08-28.
Hardware The HP TouchPad is a touchscreen tablet that runs HP webOS. It has several notable features. The TouchPad uses card multitasking found in Palm Pre phones. The integrated webcam on the front of the HP TouchPad enables video conferencing. There is a backlit Home button at the bottom. The HP TouchPad also allows for haptic feedback with vibration function. The hardware includes an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1 GB of RAM. "Touch to Share" allows a Pre 3 mobile to share information such as websites by touching its sensors with the TouchPad's sensors. The TouchPad can receive calls and text messages forwarded from any phone using a Palm Profile. as well as make and receive calls via the Skype application. An independent site estimated that the 16 GB and the 32 GB HP TouchPad's contained $296.15 and $318.15 of materials respectively with a cost to assemble of $10.
Screen, audio and input The HP TouchPad has a 9.7 inch, 1024×768 pixel, Gorilla Glass multitouch capacitive touch screen. Interaction can be by finger or a capacitive stylus, available for separate purchase. The TouchPad's virtual keyboard can be configured to one of four preset sizes, and has a number row on top of the common QWERTY layout. The TouchPad also features an InvenSense 3-axis gyroscope.
The TouchPad has three separate physical buttons, a sleep/wake button on the top right, a home button at the bottom of the front that launches the card view or the app launcher and a set of volume rockers at the right of the device. Holding the power button and the home button together creates a screen snapshot. The TouchPad has stereo speakers that feature Beats Audio.
Connectivity The Atheros AR6003 chipset supports dual band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth. The tablet can share URLs, phone calls, and text messages with webOS phones via Bluetooth pairing. Pairing with non-webOS smartphones was enabled by a software update 3.0.4.
Power and battery The TouchPad uses a rechargeable 6000 or 6300 mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery rated at 3,7 V (total 22,2 Wh).Cracking open the HP TouchPad , June 29, 2011, TechRepublic It can be charged via MicroUSB connector or optional wireless charging by Touchstone charger. When using the Touchstone, the TouchPad enters a mode called Exhibition Mode, which displays simple information such as a clock, schedule or media.
The battery life was estimated at nine hours by HP; in a review by Engadget, the battery lasted for about eight and a half hours.
Other models In July 2011, HP announced their webOS hardware roadmap. This included the "HP TouchPad 4G", with a faster 1.5 GHz processor, 32 GB of flash memory, integrated A-GPS, and AT&T 3.5G HSPA+ wireless mobile broadband capabilities; demo models were displayed at a press show, but it was not released for sale, except to HP employees, where it later appeared on eBay and craigslist. In August, a white model with 64 GB of flash memory, a 1.5 GHz processor and Wi-Fi – but without 3.5G – was built in small quantities and shipped."Review: White 1.5 GHz HP TouchPad"; precentral.net; November 2, 2011. A small number of "TouchPad Go" models (codenamed "Opal") with a 7-inch display, 32 GB of flash memory, a 1.5 GHz processor, and cellular capabilities were made, some of which sent to technology review websites. These smaller TouchPads, however, were not mass-produced, with the overall inspiration later carried on to the HP Slate 7.TouchPad "Go Opal model in FCC certification database"; precentral.net; August 10, 2011."HP TouchPad Go details galore"; precentral.net; September 28, 0211."HP Touchpad Go Review"; YouTube.com; December 27, 2011.
Software
Pre-installed applications Application Name Description Web Web browser; uses WebKit layout engine. Calendar Calendar application capable of synchronizing Facebook, Google, Microsoft Exchange and Yahoo calendars and displaying their events in unified and user-configurable Day, Week, and Month Views. Email Default email client. Messaging Standard SMS and MMS application; built in hooks for AIM, Yahoo, Google Chat, and Skype. App Catalog Access the HP App Catalog. Memos Note taking application. Quickoffice Suite of office applications with that allows for the viewing and creation of spreadsheets, slideshow presentations and word processing documents. Adobe Reader PDF viewing software. Maps Default mapping application that searches for locations, gets directions and displays traffic patterns. Contacts Address book where a user can store contact information that can be synced across your various accounts. Music Application that plays the music files stored on the device. Phone & Video Calls Standard phone dialer; can place phone calls and also use Skype for video calls. Photos & Videos View videos and photographs on the device. Amazon Kindle (Beta) Access to e-books on an Amazon account. Facebook Access Facebook via the user's account. YouTube Browse through videos on YouTube.
Operating systems
webOS The TouchPad was sold with the webOS operating system, which offers video chat, wireless printing (HP printers only), email integration, ebooks, Web browsing, document editing, and access to the "HP Catalog", where additional apps can be downloaded.Video: A Tour of HP's TouchPad and webOS , 2011/08/18.
webOS was a "card-based" multitasking environment. Open applications can be arranged into "stacks." webOS unobtrusively notifies users of messages, emails, and calendar agenda items, appearing on the top right of the screen, rapidly reviewed by a swipe gesture. webOS 3.0 integrates Adobe Flash. The last updated version was 3.0.5 as of January 12, 2012.
HP supports funding of a new open source project. webOS's scalability and easy app development base attracts developers. Open Source webOS provides standardized Java development tools to build and port apps to webOS rapidly.webOS uptake rides on scalability, easy app creation, 2011/12/16. Open webOS as released by HP will not directly work with the TouchPad due to proprietary code; HP, however, released an open source webOS Community Edition for use with the TouchPad.HP releases open source webOS Community Edition for TouchPads . Computerworld (2012-06-27). Retrieved on 2013-08-28.
Android
On October 6, 2011, it was reported that a few customers had received new TouchPads with Android installed instead of webOS. HP later stated that they had developed a version of Android, for use in testing the hardware while webOS was still under development, suggesting that these units had been shipped with that software in error.
On October 22, 2011, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) (in an Alpha version) became available for the TouchPad. This port, based on the CyanogenMod enhanced distribution of Android, allows the TouchPad to run most Android apps natively. The Android port for TouchPad did not replace webOS, providing a "multi-boot" so that TouchPad owners could start their tablets into Android, webOS, or other OSs. Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' was not ported to the TouchPad because the source code was not publicly available.