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Rumor: HP WebOS tablet/Hurricane/PalmPad early 2011

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They say you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Well, according to the latest rumor, HP is taking that idiom and running with it for tablets with rumors of the Windows 7 HP Slate 500 headed to enterprise, the Android-based eStation Zeen for printers, and now the return of the WebOS-based HP Hurricane, a.k.a. PalmPad.

From the movie "Big Jake" - Thanks to dstrauss for the idea!

Engadget reports that several sources have said HP employees were told yesterday that the project known as “Hurricane” is set to hit land in Q1 of 2011. No details about the device were leaked, nor is it known if this will affect any of the other tablet projects that may or may not be in the works. At this point, it seems more likely than not that these projects are running in parallel, but since HP went silent on their tablet plans (going on four months now), we can only speculate on that.

All I know for sure is I’m out of easy “I thought you were dead” screengrabs (sorry, hard to find good ones for Spock “I’ve been dead” and Capt. Sheridan “I’m better now”), and that sentiment no longer applies now that HP seems to have three slates in the works. I’m going to have to find a new theme, like the three-way shoot-out, “Reign of the Supermen” (which is quite fitting since it followed the “Death of Superman“), or movie trilogies.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. grwisher

    08/10/2010 at 2:08 pm

    It is unbelievable that since January 2010, when Jobs gave detailed information about the iPad, that not only is there no shipping competitor to the iPad; there is no announcement from any competitor with any real detail. Perhaps the problem is that Apple began developing the iPad in 2003 and that this form factor is not as easy to develop as one would think.

  2. ChrisRS

    08/10/2010 at 2:21 pm

    HP Tablet in time for back to school? – NO!
    HP Tablet in time for Black Friday? – NO!
    HP Tablet in time for Christmas? – NO!
    3 HP OS’s for “WTF do I want/Need?” – Yes!
    HP Tablet in time for “Let’s wait for iPad 2”? – YES!
    HP Tablet in time for “It costs more than the Clearance iPads”? – Yes

    Looks like an also ran.

  3. dstrauss

    08/11/2010 at 6:11 am

    Wow ChrisRS – spot on. It’s like the whole industry is frozen in a panic and Apple is laughing all the way to the bank! Only one of the three HP’s (Win7) appears to even have a chance at a pre-Christmas launch, and it’s still slated (pun intended) for the enterprise market. That last observation is the best. HP, like the others, are shooting desparately for a catch up slot with the current iPad, and by Jan/Feb the internet will be going wild with iPad 2 fever.

    It’s like that old saying, “If you’re not the lead sled dog, the view is all the same!” and that’s what the iPad competitors are facing.

  4. Dan

    08/11/2010 at 7:30 am

    IBM/Lenovo, Dell, Motion, and HP, among many others, have been making TabletPC’s for years.

    If what you mean by the phrase ‘no iPad competitor’ as being that there is no ‘consumer based’ comnsumption device that you need to ‘subscribe’ to a service for information, buy software or subscriptions from application ‘stores’ or other non-essential entertainment based device services, then yes you are correct that there are no alternatives to the iPad.

    What I want, however, is not an iPad competitor, but a ‘replacement’ for my Motion LS800 or a smaller slate tablet than my 2730P which was in no way a real replacement for my old broken TC1100. I am willing to wait for a real slate.

    I have a history book in progress in MS Word on my LS800 that I work on whenever I have the time whether I am at work, school, home, or a restaurant. I have tracking matricies in MS Excel and MS Access that I update with work and Scout information. I have notes, plans, and tasks in MS OneNote that are linked to MS Outlook in my calendar and task list. I cannot use an iPad, Android Tablet, Windows Phone 7 Tablet, or WebOS Tablet for any of that. I need a replacement Windows 7 Tablet and whether or not it has ‘touch’ windowing ability or a fancy dancy ‘home screen’ is completely irrelevent for me.

    What upsets me is that I feel that the full function of a TabletPC is in the process of being ‘dumbed down’ to the consumer entertainment ‘frenzy’ level caused by the iPad and its ‘social networking’ focus and devices that have what I need a device to accomplish are being ignored. In all the hype over the iPad and the rush to bring a PC competitor to market the true TabletPC is quietly dying and nobody seems to care.

    What doubly upsets me is that I read right here how ‘Windows 7 will never work for a Tablet’ or ‘Microsoft cannot compete with the iPad.’ I have Win 7 on my now ancient by tech standards LS800 and I use it every day for things the iPad cannot do without having to mine the app store, figure out some way to hack it, or trying to find the ‘perfect’ pen that will allow some semblence of inking ability.

    If all one wants to do with their device is browse the internet, update their blog, and read or write tweets or facebook information then that is fine, but remember what you USED to use a tablet for. Remember the tablets that used to come with a pen that happened to work when you turned on the device? Remember the ones you could load OpenOffice or MS Office on and use the device to do some work without having to hack it or load something from a subscription site with a monthly bill? Remember that they came out about, oh lets see…2001?

    The iPad seems to have hit a market segment that was looking for a bigger iPhone but I disagree that Microsoft or any of the TabletPC makers should necessarilly follow that path and abandon the TabletPC functionality. The Zune never truly replaced the iPod for instance. My boss, after watching me use my LS800 for many months told me one day recently that he looked at an iPad and it “couldn’t do what he has been watching me do with my tablet.” He then proceded to look for a TabletPC as an alternative and found no slate devices available as a competitor. So he ordered an LS800 off eBay. It should be here soon.

    The lesson? Don’t make a TabletPC like an iPad…make a cheaper TabletPC that does all the TabletPC things that doesn’t cost $2,000! That is the answer to competing with the iPad…don’t. Instead, iterate the TabletPC so that it does exactly what it has been doing but for $800 or less. In my opinion it has not been the lack of touch, subscription services, or a fancy dancy home screen that has limited the TabletPC, it is the fact that they have been nearly double the cost of a laptop for far too long! It is the cost of the device to the consumer that has prevented widespread use not its functionality.

    Dan
    P.S. Okay, shutting up now…

    • acerbic

      08/11/2010 at 10:18 am

      Current signs and omens point to that HP did the smart thing for once and redesigned their Windows slate into a real tablet pc with digitizer pen instead of a stupid “iFad killer”, so it may still be just what we’re looking for.

  5. CBONE

    08/11/2010 at 8:39 am

    I don’t understand what the holdup is. why couldn’t anyone start from a standard tiny fanless, sinkless board, bust all the ports off for thinness. and go from there.

    My fujitsu slate gets plenty of looks. Makers need to calm down with all the ports (what is wrong with more/any microusb ports and packing an adapter dongle for full size usb), give up the idea of selling multiple battery packs, windows 7 is great for tablets, but you can’t load it up with the same proprietary BS you put on desktops.

  6. acerbic

    08/12/2010 at 4:12 pm

    There’s still one “I thought you were dead” type quote/scene that might be appropriate for when any HP slate is finally released and hopefully exceeds expectations: “They said you was hung” from Blazing Saddles.

  7. Best Laptops 2011

    12/18/2010 at 5:24 pm

    It’s going to take a slick, mod-able tablet to beat the iPad.

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