The HP Touchpad - The good, the bad, and the ugly

HP TouchPad can be called as Hewlett-Packard’s unsuccessful attempt in the tablet industry. The American consumer electronics maker launched its webOS-based TouchPad touting as a real rival to Apple iPad in July this year. But within a few months, the company is now in a state to halt the production of the device due to it's sluggish performance in the market. HP TouchPad is a unique product, indeed. As it is running on a fresh OS and supporting Adobe Flash player, many analysts predicted its possible success in the market. But the lack of applications, the biggest threat for all start-up products in the market, has in fact killed the tablet.

HP TouchPad

The good

The most striking thing with the HP tablet is that it has a touch of Apple iPad in its very identity. HP owns both the hardware and software as Apple does in the case of iPad tablet. Of course, technology analysts particularly flattered this feature when the company announced its plan to launch the webOS tablet in February this year. HP got the webOS operating system when the company took over its developer Palm some years back.

HP TouchPad received rave reviews for its notable features such as Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support, superb audio enhancements, better e-mail service and great multitasking features. The device mounts a 9.7-inch display of 1024x768 resolution. It is an exact copy of Apple iPad, however. HP has been selling the device for a moderate price. The 16 GB model costs $ 499.99 and the 32 GB model costs $ 599.99.

The tablet from HP has some aesthetic attractions also. Though designed in style of Apple iPad, the device has a larger screen and nice look. Under the cover, the tablet features a dual core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB RAM. 1.3-megapixel front facing camera, virtual keyboard, accelerometer and gyroscope, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 6300 mAh battery are some other notable features of the tablet.

In succinct, enumerated here are the much noted good points of the HP tablet. The features are listed based on a comparison of the device with the leading tablets in the market, especially Apple iPad:

• Great touch experience

• Superior multitasking experience

• Faster processor

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1

• An innovative operating system

The bad

Though attracting reviewers and consumers in its initial days, HP TouchPad lost its sheen in some weeks. Lack of enough applications, was certainly the biggest demerit the reviewers attributed to the device. Surprisingly, there is not even a suitable app for the device’s front camera. Later, many other shortfalls of the device came into light. The device does not have a scrolling indicator on the right side. That is, you cannot get the status of scrolling while doing it.

Many apps designed for webOS phones do not run on the tablet. Making it far worse, HP App Store does not offer sufficient information as to what all devices the applications will run on. It always needs customers to install an app and check whether it will run on the tablet or not. Listed below are some major shortfalls of HP TouchPad:

• Lack of enough applications

• No scrolling indicator

• Less competitive HP App Store

The ugly

The ugliest thing with the HP TouchPad is already mentioned in the earlier part of the article. The company halted the HP TouchPad project citing the reason that the device was getting a shoddier response. HP announced some weeks back that after the inventory in stores, it would not manufacture any new units of TouchPad. But the company recently relaxed its stand and said one more round would be available for customers. Of course, the inconsistent approach on a product would degrade its reputation.

The verdict

HP TouchPad has not been a bad device, anyway. Offering great music, Web browsing and multitasking experiences, the webOS-based tablet could have survived in the market. The device has been attracting consumers even after HP’s plan to halt its production. It was in response to the market that the company announced its plan to manufacture one more round of TouchPad units.