(image credit: HP)
almost a year on after HP acquisition of Palm, HP announces three new WebOS devices that bears the HP brand name. the trio are the HP Veer ultra-compact smartphone, the HP Pre3 smartphone and the HP TouchPad. the Pre3 looks like an upsized Veer which has an uncanny resemblance to the Palm Pre2.
HP is touting the next generation of the Touchstone technology which enables easy URL sharing between the Touchpad and your Pre handset, simply by tapping them together and also enables the Touchpad to receive text messages and answer phone calls. interesting idea, but i wouldn’t answer a phone call with such a huge device unless i have a Bluetooth headset paired. just imagine holding a 240 x 190 x 13.7 mm device up against my ear. it’s definitely going to look ridiculous.
i’m not all too excited about the hardware but it will be interesting to see how WebOS is going to perform given that the market has since been populated by Apple iOS and Google Android OS, and more recently, the Windows 7 mobile OS. i suspect it’s going to be an uphill task for WebOS. price plans has yet to be announced but the Veer’s availability should just round the corner, while both the Touchpad and Pre3 are slated for summer release.
