After a disastrous first attempt to break into the mobile hardware market, HP is reportedly investing resources to develop a new tablet and potentially a new smartphone as well, with Android as their chosen operating system.
HP’s webOS powered tablet, TouchPad, suffered an embarrassingly short shelf-life as it was pulled in late 2011, a mere 3 months after its launch. This decision was part of HP’s broader strategy to move away from hardware in order to concentrate on software instead. While TouchPad was a relatively speedy and capable tablet, its price plummeted to bargain basement levels and webOS effectively ceased to be a supported working platform.
It’s funny how much of a difference 18 months can make. After witnessing the spectacular rise of mobile internet usage and explosive population of the latest generation of tablets, HP wants to climb back into the saddle and develop new mobile devices of its own. However, HP fans shouldn’t anticipate a return of webOS, as the company is strongly hinting that it is more likely to go with an existing mobile OS for its new hardware, with Google’s recently open-sourced Android as the current favourite.
According to HP CEO Meg Whitman, the company will ultimately offer a smartphone but there is no current plan for a 2013 launch. As we well know, hardware product launches are subject to schedule changes but we may well have to wait at least another year to enjoy the fruit of HP’s labours. The company has been making a significant recruitment drive, advertising web developer jobs among other positions in preparation for this renewed effort to break into the mobile hardware market in a big way.
While it’s exciting to see HP coming back to contend in the hardware arena, they will have to come up with a product that is something special in order to compete with Apple’s iPad in any meaningful way. Android tablets, while performing well, haven’t managed to challenge the iPad’s rampant popularity yet and it will take a product that can provide a performance that’s better than the competition at a competitive price in order to make a big splash.
