HP confirms WebOS tablet

According to a report from DigiTimes Systems, Hewlett-Packard (HP) plans to bring a WebOS-based Internet tablet to the market by October of this year. The news comes just days after the official HP News Twitter account confirmed that customers should expect WebOS "slates and web-connected printers". HP Taiwan personal computing systems group Vice President Monty Wong, who confirmed that the company is working on a WebOS tablet, says that consumers could expect to see a wide range of software and application support at launch as well. However, Wong notes that the company will not offer a WebOS-based netbook.

In April this year, HP announced that it had acquired smartphone manufacturer and WebOS creator Palm for approximately $1.2 billion. Palm's mobile platform WebOS uses the Linux kernel and open source WebKit browser. The acquisition includes Palm's portfolio of over 1,500 patents, built up from 1996 when the Palm Pilot was released, through the release of the Treo mobile phones and on up to the current generation of Palm Pre and Pixi mobile phones.

More details about a WebOS based tablet are expected to be announced by HP in late July, the same time that the Palm acquisition should be completed.

See also:

• HP buys Palm, a report from The H.
• Palm Pre GSM source code now available, a report from The H.
• Source code for Palm WebOS released, a report from The H.

(crve)