HP’s TouchPad vs. Apple’s iPad: Can HP’s WebOS Beat Apple’s IOS?

In direct competition with Apple?
The TouchPad is the first tablet offered by HP that will run on its much-touted webOS platform designed by Palm, the company that HP acquired last year. This is the tablet that HP hopes will be a strong contender in the 2011 tablet wars. In the fall of 2010, HP introduced an Android-based tablet along with a printer. Previously, HP introduced the HP Slate 500, a Windows 7 tablet PC. Of course, it would seem obvious that naming the new device “pad” rather than a variation of “tablet” would give the impression that this new TouchPad is meant to compete directly with the Apple iPad.

Similarities of the TouchPad with the Apple iPad:
The HP TouchPad is 13.7 mm thick (iPad is 13.4 mm) and weighs 1.6 lbs. It shares the specs of the Apple iPad with its 9.7″ capacitive multi-touch display with 1024×768 resolution. Since neither the TouchPad nor the iPad has the preferred 16:9 aspect ratio of most Android tablets, experience HD widescreen movies can be disappointing by comparison, but the screen resolutions of the TouchPad and iPad are much better suited to reading documents and digital publications.

There is also a similarity between the TouchPad and the iPad with regards to wireless connectivity and internal stereo speakers. HP speakers (Beats by Dre) have already been used in HP Envy laptops and produce a superior audio output experience. The TouchPad also comes in a 16GB or 32GB option and also has a Wi-Fi-only or 3G-enabled option that includes a GPS and mobile broadband radio. 4G is expected to arrive later. At this time there is no memory card reader available to expand memory.

Differences between TouchPad and iPad:
The big differences between the HP device and the Apple device are, of course, the operating systems and the touch panel CPU, the microUSB charging port, the LED alert light and the gyroscope, as well as its wireless charging system, called Touchstone. Of course, unlike the iPad, the HP device supports Adobe Flash.

The TouchPad also eschews Apple’s multi-layered on-screen keyboard, includes a row of numbers with its touch keys for easy text entry, and can be resized on the fly. And, not to be undone by Apple and its accessories for the iPad, there are several of these available for the TouchPad as well, including a specially designed HP case, the TouchStone charging and stand system, and an “ultra-slim wireless keyboard” for input. easier text.

The HP TouchPad has a 1.3-megapixel webcam on the front that supports video calling. It won’t feature a camera on the back, a feature HP thinks tablet users don’t often fully utilize anyway, as most keep their smartphones handy for that purpose. The TouchPad will include an accelerometer and a compass. It will run Qualcomm’s extremely fast processor, the Snapdragon Dual Core APQ8060 at 1.2 GHz. It belongs to the third generation Snapdragon processors and enables high definition 3D video and multitasking capabilities.

Users will also be able to access and edit Microsoft Office documents and the platform also supports VPN (virtual private network for secure remote access). Applications such as email and Internet browser programs have been optimized for larger screens through collapsible panels and menus. The way multiple apps will be active on the screen at once will also be unique. They will be “cards,” not icons, and can slide off the home screen or be stacked on top of each other for related tasks.

Probably the biggest difference between Apple and HP when it comes to tablet PC manufacturing is that Apple sees the iPad as the all-in-one portable device that can meet most customer needs and HP sees the tablet as having more of an add-on feature that sits somewhere between smartphone and PC. It will be very interesting to see how consumers react to this new device with its webOS operating system as it competes with Apple’s iPad as well as all the other tablets coming this year.