In the family of mobile operating systems, Apple’s iOS is the eldest child with a wall full of trophies, while Google’s Android is its younger sibling, trying to prove to dad that iOS didn't get all of the good genetics.
Yet, there is a forgotten middle child: HP’s webOS. First developed by Palm as a successor to Palm OS, HP’s purchase of Palm didn't create as many opportunities for market adoption as originally anticipated. Since webOS’ introduction in 2009, we've only seen a handful of devices with the company's mobile operating system. Within the same period, multiple manufacturers collectively launched a slew of Android-based phones.
The tablet scene also reflects this disparity. Although Motorola’s Xoom was released in February 2011, it represented the first real threat to Apple’s iPad. Previous Android-based tablets all relied on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which was originally designed for smartphones. The Xoom introduced us to Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), a version of Google's mobile operating system specifically optimized for the larger-screen tablets.
HP is arriving to this party a little late. Its solution, dubbed the HP TouchPad, is an attempt to carve out a portion of the growing tablet market by offering a second alternative to iOS.
So far, first-generation tablets have tended to be both heavier and chunkier than their successors. The iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are great examples of refined aesthetics only after a vendor nailed down core functionality. HP seems to suffer those same first-gen woes, though. At 1.6 pounds, the TouchPad is one of the heaviest tablets available. But this represents HP's first effort in the tablet market, and we're willing to overlook its heft.
Thickness Compared to AA Battery
| iPad 2 (3G) | Xoom | Iconia A500 | TouchPad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 9.5" | 9.8" | 10.2" | 10" |
| Width | 7.31" | 6.6" | 7" | 7.5" |
| Height | .34" | 0.5" | 0.5" | 0.5" |
| Screen Size | 9.7" | 10.1" | 10.1" | 9.7" |
| Aspect Ratio | 4:3 | 16:10 | 16:10 | 4:3 |
| Weight | 1.33 lbs. | 1.5 lbs. | 1.65 lbs. | 1.6 lbs. |
All of the Android tablets that we've seen thus far employ a wide-aspect (16:10) display, whereas the iPad uses a 4:3 ratio. As its product name suggests, Apple's solution is most often used like a pad of paper. Reading a Web site in portrait mode on an iPad feels as natural as reading off of a clipboard.
It's also possible to use wide-aspect tablets in portrait mode. However, you get less horizontal space to work in, making the experience a little awkward. Conversely, 16:10 works well for viewing videos, and that's where Motorola's Xoom and Acer's Iconia Tab A500 really shine.
In contrast, HP specifically markets the TouchPad as a more productivity-oriented tablet, which is why it follows in Apple's footsteps with a 4:3 screen.
While the TouchPad is supposed to be more enterprise-flavored, the external design is a professional's worst nightmare. Encased in glossy piano-black ABS plastic, the TouchPad's surface has a propensity to attract fingerprints. This makes it easy for a thin layer of oil to build up, which is a minor annoyance. But business devices really should adopt a cleaner matte finish, similar to Lenovo's ThinkPad line.
Top: Power Button, Microphone, and Headphone Port
Compared to the competition, HP's first-generation tablet shows up to this fight a little under-equipped. There is no rear-facing camera. You only get a modest 1.3 MP front-facing camera for video conferencing (via Skype, for example). And while, again, this tablet is geared toward professionals, there's no way to output video, which is a deficiency if you want to give presentations through the device.
The no-frills design has some drawbacks. For example, the volume rocker always behaves in the same way, no matter how you're holding the tablet. In order to increase volume, you always press away from the home button. However, with other tablets, increasing volume is always to the right or away from you. That helps make screen orientation more intuitive.
HP’s TouchPad comes with webOS 3.0, a version exclusive to the TouchPad. Version 2.0 is restricted to HP’s latest smartphones, but the differences are few. Overall, webOS 3.0 is similar to webOS 2.0, and more specifically optimized for the TouchPad’s larger screen. Considering that most of us don’t use HP smartphones though, webOS 3.0 is probably still foreign to most folks.
Unlocking
If the TouchPad is sitting idle, you need to unlock the screen by moving the yellow lock button outside the half-circle.
Navigation
The touch gestures on the TouchPad are the same as every other tablet. There are taps, scrolls, pinches, and swipes. The home screen contains a task bar with shortcuts to the browser, email, calendar, messaging, photo, and video apps. The arrow icon functions as the home button; it takes you back to the Launcher menu. Up top, you see a "Just type..." search bar that you can set to your favorite search engine. But it also allows you to search for a particular program.
Once you’re in a program, pressing the home button takes you to the main screen. This is where all of the currently-open programs are displayed. You can switch between multiple programs by swiping horizontally to find the window you want, and resuming a program is as simple as tapping on its window.
The keyboards in iOS and Android feature four rows of keys. But in both operating systems, they're basically all letters. Entering mixed input (like numbers) requires that you hit some sort of function key.
That's not an issue for the TouchPad because of its business focus. The keyboard in webOS features five rows, with the fifth dedicated to displaying numbers. This is a welcome relief when you're editing spreadsheets. But it also serves to make the layout more familiar to folks accustomed to desktop keyboards (another big positive for anyone finding the tablet transition difficult).
Notifications
Notifications are managed beautifully in webOS. The latest alerts appear on the lock screen. Once the TouchPad is unlocked, a prompt appears with options for snoozing or dismissing.
Home Screen: Notification Prompt
Notifications on a Locked Screen
Stacked Notifications
Swipe to Dismiss
If you’ve ignored your notifications, they start to stack up in the status bar. In order to dismiss those alerts, you simply swipe through them like a deck of cards.
The email program is extremely easy to use. No matter how you hold the tablet, everything is displayed in three panels. It is possible to dismiss one panel at a time by pressing the button on-screen with three vertical lines.
Multitasking: Stacked Windows
HP's webOS 3.0 features a form of multitasking that allows you to open multiple windows of the same program. For example, every new browser that you open with the “+” button is treated as a sub-window. These function in the same way as tabs on the desktop, but management is a little different. When you return to the navigation pane, sub-windows appear in a stacked deck with the original window. Unfortunately, you can't see each window's content at the same time, which can be a source of frustration if the stack is large and you need to flip between pages.
Interestingly, when a browser is already open, you can create a new browser deck by hitting the Web icon on the main menu manually. This is a very easy way to separate work-related and personal tasks, for instance. And while the grouped windows appear stacked in the order you opened them, rearrangement is possible by holding your finger down on one window and moving it to the desired position in the stack.
Swiping Up To Eject
Swiping Down To Eject Program
If you need to dismiss a window (or one in a stack), just swipe up or down on the screen.
Music
The native Music app in webOS operates in two panels. Once you select an album or artist, the program automatically switches to a list of individual songs.
Pictures And Videos
The Photos & Videos app sorts pictures and videos based on the folder they’re in. When you open a picture, you can rotate the screen as you see fit. With a video, the screen locks in landscape mode with the speakers on the bottom. If you’re using the TouchPad in a different orientation, the UI controls adjust accordingly, but the video overlay is locked.
Furthermore, the TouchPad cannot play any video larger than 2 GB. We're not sure if this is a limitation of webOS 3.0 or the TouchPad. HP uses the FAT32 file system architecture, so the maximum file size should be 4 GB. But although our 2.8 GB Blu-ray rip is detected, it refuses to play in the native video player.
At first we suspected an application limitation, so we purchased Kalemsoft Media Player (the only third-party video player available for the TouchPad). Interestingly, Kalemsoft wouldn't even detect any video file larger than 2 GB.
And we know this isn’t a matter of using the right codec, because when we split our 2.8 GB Blu-ray rip into smaller files, they played back in both apps without any problem.
Documents
HP’s TouchPad comes with a Microsoft Office-like program called Quickoffice that lets you view Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. The company says it's working on a version that will allow editing as well in webOS. It plans to offer the update as a free download for TouchPad owners, but doesn't give an estimated date for availability. Meanwhile, the versions for Apple's iPad and Android-based tablets are far more feature-complete.
File Transfer
In order to copy files to and from the TouchPad, USB mode must be enabled. However, HP doesn’t support the Windows Portable Device protocol, which is why the TouchPad appears as a generic FAT32 USB drive under Windows 7. This turns out to be a good thing for Mac users, because the FAT32 format is natively supported for USB drives. So, there’s no need to install a special program to enable file transfers like you would need to with an Android-based device. The disadvantage is that you can't use the TouchPad while it's in USB mode.
Mac OS X: HP Touchpad
Windows 7: HP Touchpad
Screenshots
Taking a screenshot is easy. Press the home and power buttons at the same time, just as you would on an iPad. All of the files are stored in a folder labeled “screencaptures,” which is visible when you plug the HP TouchPad into a computer.
Apple has its reasons to support HTML5 instead of Flash, one of which is that Adobe's solution tends to be a power and performance hog. Tablets employ less-powerful hardware and come equipped with smaller batteries than notebooks, so Flash support is almost in direct opposition to what smartphones and tablets were designed to do. With that said, Flash is the most prevalent multimedia platform, and it's here to stay.
We explored Flash support on Android 3.0 last month in our Xoom review. We haven't seen anything change since then. In many situations, Flash continues to trash a tablet's responsiveness.
Like Google, HP chose to support both HTML5 and Flash, making webOS-based devices attractive to a broader audience. Right out of the box, Hulu works without any glitches. The same goes for many other Flash-based Web sites.
Touchpad: Colbert Nation
Touchpad: YouTube
Going full-screen locks the display's orientation just like video playback, as explained on page five, and overall image quality is excellent. Four issues persist:
- Audio can become out of sync if you have multiple windows open.
- The quality of the video seems to be poorer in windowed mode, which is likely the fault of a decoding scaler that places lower priority on quality in order to minimize processing overhead.
- Even in windowed mode, Flash video continues to be a resource hog. Scrolling during video playback causes tearing as the system tries to keep up with touch commands.
- Playback performance is hit or miss. High bitrate Flash video stutters (Hulu at its default settings). You'll get five or six seconds of fluid playback and then a one-second stutter.
The absolute best part about webOS has nothing to do with its well-laid-out GUI. It has to do with Synergy. HP uses this term to refer to a feature in webOS that merges multiple sources of information into one interface. For example, when I register my Google and Facebook accounts, all of my scheduled events appear color coded in the Calendar app.
Facebook pictures are integrated into the Photos & Videos App. But webOS goes one step further. It's also possible to print directly to wireless HP printers.
Integration is even better when it comes to contacts and messaging. You can register multiple accounts, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Skype, Microsoft Exchange, AIM, and Google. The names are automatically sorted in such a way that “John E Smith” listed in LinkedIn is tied to the “John E Smith” friend from Facebook.
If the user names from one account to the next are a little different, then you need to manually associate your contacts. Once that's done, though, the data is automatically backed up to your webOS account.
The App Catalog is the equivalent of Apple’s App Store, structured a little differently. When you first open the App Catalog, HP Pivot pops up. It’s a monthly online magazine built into the interface that spotlights new programs and provides information on using the TouchPad.
Beyond that unique feature, the App Catalog is a straight-to-the-point shopping hub. There is no fancy artwork. Everything is sorted into categories in a column-based browser.
To buy an app, you simply click install and a prompt appears for your credit card information. HP currently only accepts MasterCard and Visa as payment methods, which is an inconvenience for those who prefer PayPal or American Express.

HP needs to be given credit where credit is due. Speaking as a developer who writes much of our custom-coded testing automation, webOS is the easiest mobile operating system to write for because it adheres to Web standards like HTML and CSS. Android comes in a close second because everything is Java-based. In comparison, Apple offers granular control over iOS programming, as the framework is object-oriented C, but this translates into a longer learning curve.
| Mobile OS | Android | iOS | webOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programming Ease | Meh | Low | High |
| Documentation | Reasonable | Excellent | Poor |
| Tablet Market Share | #2 | #1 | #3 |
Moving forward, HP faces two problems: documentation and market share. While webOS is easy to adopt, HP provides poor documentation relative to what's accessible via the Apple and Google developer sites. Second, market share continues to be a major reason to hold off on webOS for software developers. Programming ease means nothing when your goal is to make money. However, that requires a large base of users willing to pay for applications. That's one reason iOS continues attracting devs, despite the intricacies of object-oriented programming.
So what comes first? The chicken or the egg? Vendors need tablet users to draw developers, but they also need developers to create apps to attract users. Ultimately, it's HP's job to get developers amped up. And thus far, its success has been limited as a result of getting caught in the Android/iOS crossfire. That seems to be the impetus behind the recent $100-off TouchPad sale. However, HP needs to make that sale price permanent if it wants to really attract a following of any significant volume.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, smartphones and tablets generally employ SoCs that integrate the processor, GPU, RAM, and several other subsystems in a single device. Since all of those components sit next to each other on the same chip, there is greater efficiency in data transfers, while reducing the amount of space consumed on the PCB.
Today’s SoC technology isn’t exclusive to each device vendor. The iPad 2 centers on Apple’s A5, while most Android-based tablets use Nvidia’s Tegra 2. And yet, both share a common RISC ISA by employing ARM’s dual-core Cortex-A9. Read Apple's iPad 2 Review: Tom's Goes Down The Tablet Rabbit Hole for a full discussion of Cortex-A8 and -A9 performance.
The APQ8060 powering HP's TouchPad is an almost-entirely different species. Despite its name, the APQ8060 is nearly the same as Qualcomm's MSM8260/MSM8660. The APQ prefix stands for Application Processor Qualcomm, and refers to a Snapdragon SoC that doesn’t include an integrated cellular modem. That critical differentiating component is part of the MSM (Mobile Station Modem)-designated Snapdragons, though. And that's why Snapdragons are a preferred choice amongst smartphone manufacturers looking for a single-chip solution.
The APQ8060 is a third-generation Snapdragon SoC. It shares a similar processor architecture with the A5 and the Tegra 2, but it's also slightly different. Instead of leveraging one of ARM’s reference designs, this processor is Qualcomm’s own creation, in use since the product's very first-generation incarnation. Dubbed Scorpion, Qualcomm claims its core is superior to the Cortex-A9 found in Apple's A5 and Nvidia's Tegra 2. Meanwhile, Nvidia claims Scorpion is closer to the Cortex-A8. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
Like the Cortex-A8, Scorpion has a dual-issue in-order architecture (some things can be done out-of-order), but that's where the similarities end. Scorpion is based on the same ARMv7 architecture found in the Cortex-A8 and -A9. However, according to the developer of Linpack for Android, Qualcomm’s design is supported by an array of 600 MHz DSP and accelerator cores for baseband and video processing that offer 128-bit single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) functionality. This means that it can process SIMD instruction in 128-bit wide chunks, whereas the Cortex-A8 and –A9 are restricted to 64-bit. The Scorpion also has a deeper pipeline (though how many stages is unknown), which includes VFPv3 (Vector Floating Point v3) commands not normally piped in Cortex-A8. Though, the new Cortex-A9 does implement a pipeline for VFPv3 commands. As Linpack is a measure of floating-point performance, Snapdragon-based devices will typically outclass their Cortex-A8 and -A9-based peers.

However, the real win for Qualcomm is actually in the power consumption department. The company claims 2.1 Dhrystone MIPS/MHz/core, whereas the Cortex-A8 is quoted at 2.0 DMIPS/MHz/core. Purportedly, the difference is that getting Cortex-A8 to its top speed depends on TSMC’s general-purpose fab process, whereas Scorpion uses low-power silicon. According to Berkley Design Technologies, the Scorpion consumes roughly 200 mW at 600 MHz (including leakage current, which is negligible in the low-power process). Compare that to the Cortex-A8, which consumes about 350 mW at 600 MHz manufactured at 65 nm.
AMD is a big name notably missing from the smartphone and tablet scene. And there's a good reason for that, even if we're not particularly confident in the company's strategic decision. Former AMD CEO Dirk Meyer statedin a Fortune interview:
I do not foresee that day [when AMD competes with ARM] coming in the near term. First of all, when we consider which areas to approach, we look at markets, we look at the technology capabilities we have, and we try to find an intersection point that really represents really big opportunities. By far the biggest business opportunity we have got is in PCs and servers. The market for silicon processing content is bigger than the smartphone market. [...] The other thing we really like about our core market is that there aren’t that many competitors [...]. I would rather focus on the big market, where there’s a small number of competitors.
Meyer's response shouldn't have come as a surprise, since AMD didn't have the technology to develop smartphones in 2010 anyway. It sold its handheld business to Qualcomm the previous year. And while AMD is back on track to cut power and improve performance through integration in its Fusion-based APUs, those things are nowhere near as lightweight as they'd need to be for a phone or tablet. As we all know, Meyer was forced to resign earlier this year, reportedly over his inability to carve a foothold in the mobile market.
In the meantime, Snapdragon’s GPU architecture, dubbed Adreno, is the closest thing in the handheld world that’s remotely AMD-flavored. Adreno is Qualcomm’s rebranding of AMD’s Imageon product family, from which it traces its lineage. Even to developers, information on the newest Adreno products is hard to come by, making a full analysis difficult. We do know that, since Qualcomm took over, the only major improvement has been the implementation of a unified shader architecture.
While we can’t go into much depth on the graphics architecture, we can still evaluate performance. GLBenchmark continues to be our favorite tool for this, since it uses code similar to what you might find in games. Indeed, in a recent conversation with an Imagination Technologies engineer, we were told it’s also the company's favorite benchmark for measuring end-user performance. The problem with GLBenchmark is that it only runs at a native resolution, complicating comparisons between different hardware architectures.

However, it is possible to make a direct comparison between the third-gen Snapdragon and Tegra 2 because the HTC Sensation (MSM8260) and Motorola Droid X2 (Tegra 2) both natively run at 960x540 with Android v2.3 (Gingerbread).
Based on the benchmarks, Snapdragon’s Adreno 220 easily beats Tegra 2’s ULP GeForce in the Egypt and Pro tests. But it's even more notable that Adreno supports FSAA, while Tegra 2 does not. Adreno enjoys a big advantage by supporting the MSAA spec outlined in the formal OpenGL ES 2.0 standard. In comparison, Tegra 2 only supports CSAA. However, even that capability is not guaranteed, because the vendor must include a library extension to enable it on Tegra. For the moment, it’s hard to tell if a game support CSAA or FSAA. Programmers adhering to OpenGL ES 2.0 are more likely to support MSAA though, which is great for Snapdragon-based devices.
Armageddon Squadron
Armageddon Squadron: Screenshots Not Possible
Armageddon Squadron: Font Quality Horrible
Armageddon Squadron: Very Poor 3D Quality
Most of the games on the TouchPad aren't even worth mentioning. At HP's suggestion, we tried out Polarbit's Armageddon Squadron, a game that was demoed at the launch event. Honestly, it's crap. Setting aside the fact that screenshot functionality is broken, graphics quality is perhaps comparable to a Nintendo 64 or SNES.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for TouchPad
The launch of EA's Need for Speed Hot Pursuit for TouchPad coincided with HP's tablet announcement, and for a really good reason. It's the only game even remotely worthy of praise. It's roughly on par with Riptide on an Tegra 2-based Android tablet and less attractive than Real Racing 2 HD on an iPad 2.
Interestingly, there's something wrong with screen captures in this game too, as every screenshot contains visual artifacts.
Overall, gaming on the TouchPad is disappointing. The variety of games in HP's App Catalog suggests the selection is much broader. However, the Adreno 220's graphics potential is decidedly untapped compared to what we've seen in iOS and Android.
We've seen doubters out there skeptical of whether the TouchPad actually employs an IPS screen. Based on our observations under the microscope, we can confirm that this is an S-IPS panel. In fact, based on the subpixel structure, HP appears to be using glass from Samsung.


Even though mobile operating systems don't honor ICC color profiles, native color management does occur at the hardware level. When a GPU sends 10 different hues of blue to an LCD only capable of displaying three, the subpixels display the closest matching color. So, in a way, smartphones and tablets behave as if they’re using relative colorimetric rendering. For more information, read Tom's Hardware Benchmarks Inkjet Printer Paper!
In terms of color quality, the TouchPad delivers the most color that we've seen from any tablet. Even though it uses a panel similar to the iPads, HP achieves a higher gamut volume by using a default calibration closer to the AdobeRGB 1998 spec.


We have to make a couple of adjustments in order to generate these gamut measurements. First, we disable dynamic brightness because it doesn’t facilitate an accurate (or reproducible) measurement of the display’s potential. Second, brightness is set to the highest value. If you don't use the same settings, your color gamut is going to look smaller than what we're showing here.



Compared to the S-IPS panels on the iPads, HP achieves a slightly lower contrast ratio due to stunted white luminance. The color temperature is exactly at 6500 K, resulting in accurate color representation, but the low gamma distorts color perception. Gamma doesn't affect black or white performance, but it does affect midtones. If gamma is set too high, they appear too dark. If it's set too low, midtones appear too pale.
Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft all recommend a gamma of 2.2. It's an arbitrary value carried over from the NTSC standard, but it was originally chosen because it allows colors to appear more natural in slightly dim environments. The TouchPad's slightly lower gamma value suggests that it's best used in a darker environment. This is really the only weak point of the TouchPad's display. In every other attribute, HP seems to be hitting the AdobeRGB 1998 reference spec.
| HP TouchPad | ||
|---|---|---|
| White Luminance cd/m^2 | ||
| 281.1690 | 283.7632 | 269.9740 |
| 321.1657 | 344.1970 | 309.7053 |
| 331.4747 | 330.9004 | 338.2410 |
| Black Luminance cd/m^2 | ||
| 0.3605 | 0.3635 | 0.3641 |
| 0.4980 | 0.4284 | 0.4054 |
| 0.4591 | 0.4947 | 0.5168 |


The TouchPad was oriented so that its home button was to the right of the screen during uniformity measurements. Interestingly, the top edge of the display suffers from poor luminance, which suggests that the LED backlight isn’t properly scattering brightness in a consistent manner. Instead, luminance behaves on a gradient: high at the bottom and low at the top.
Real-World Benchmarks
Early on we discovered how difficult it is to benchmark tablets. Benchmarking responsiveness with a camera is the easiest approach.
Of course, normal cameras won't cut it, since they only shoot at 29 FPS. That's unacceptable if you're trying to measure precise time differences. Going the stop-watch route is no better due to human-introduced errors. That's why we're using a 1000 FPS high-speed camera to measure performance. Since, one frame equals one millisecond, it’s possible to measure timings with a high degree of accuracy.

Even though the TouchPad's third-gen Snapdragon employs a more refined processor design than its competition, the boot time measurement suggests that webOS 3.0.2 is a more bloated operating system.

This is confirmed by our browser launch time benchmark. Compared to the A500 and Xoom, it takes twice as long to open a browser window on the TouchPad. Apple's iPad 2 reigns king here with a much leaner operating system and browser. It doesn't even take a full second to launch Safari in iOS.
Input lag is the time it takes from pressing a key to the time it takes for text to appear on the screen. This tells you how fast a tablet is registering an action. Ideally, you want low input lag so that you don't feel like the tablet is stuttering as you type or click buttons. The average college student has a reaction time of 200 milliseconds for visual stimuli, so there's no perceivable lag while you're typing with the TouchPad.
Battery Life
Testing a tablet’s battery life tends to be highly variable unless you control the entire experience from beginning to end. Cumulatively, touch gestures don’t have a great impact on battery life. The biggest factors are CPU/GPU processing, screen brightness, volume, and Wi-Fi use. In order to accurately measure battery life, I coded a script that automatically plays MP3s at 50% volume while browsing different Wikipedia pages every 12 minutes. This benchmark is probably overkill, but it gives you an idea of a worst-case scenario.


Recharge Time


Charging times are a double-edged sword. Ideally, you want a nice slow charge so that your battery lasts more than a few hundred cycles. Fast charge times keep you away from the wall socket longer, but in the long run they cut down on the health of the battery. Usually, the rate of charge starts to slow down somewhere in the 80% to 95% range, which is why the charging time from 0% to 10% is faster than 90% to 100%.
| Tablet Pricing | 16 GB | 32 GB | 64 GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPad 2 (Wi-Fi) | $499 | $599 | $699 |
| iPad 2 (AT&T 3G) | $629 | $729 | $829 |
| iPad 2 (Verizon 3G) | $629 | $729 | $829 |
| Xoom (Wi-Fi) | - | $499 | - |
| Iconia Tab A500 (Wi-Fi) | $449 | - | - |
| TouchPad (Wi-Fi) | $449 | $549 | - |
HP offers the TouchPad at a slightly lower price compared to its competition. However, hardware acquisition isn't the only price you're bound to pay. A tablet purchase, as with the adoption of a personal computer, constitutes the acceptance of a specific platform. But no tablet can truly succeed without a healthy base of developers creating new apps. Even if its hardware wasn't as sexy as it's perceived to be, Apple would still enjoy a tremendous advantage by virtue of the ISVs publishing to its App Store. Android still has some catching up to do in that regard. And it's a much more palpable problem for the TouchPad. Variety in the App Catalog is particularly thin.
In the end, HP's battle has nothing to do with the hardware. It has to do with software and attracting more developers. Even if it takes four times as long to develop an app in iOS than webOS, the development community is going to follow the trail of dollars. According to a recent IHS iSuppli survey, 79.2% of tablet owners confirmed owning either an iPad or iPad 2, and 50% of those shopping for a new tablet said they would by an iPad 2. That's what will motivate developers more than anything.
The TouchPad and its webOS represent a third contingent of business-oriented users willing to pay for third-party software in order to improve their mobile computing experience. But HP is in a tough spot. It has to face down Apple and Google, both more established in this field.
HP mitigates its disadvantage somewhat by touting a more professional billing than what iOS or Android offer. And if you're most interested in productivity, the TouchPad is indeed a compelling contender. There are so many things that HP did right here. The interface is clean and Synergy is unbelievably useful. But some critical features, like document editing, are missing even with the latest 3.0.2 update. Quickoffice is supposedly working on this, and it is supposed to be a free upgrade, but we don't know when it'll become available.
Thus, professionals shopping for a productivity-oriented tablet with a 4:3 aspect ratio have two choices:
- HP's TouchPad, clearly intended for business use with a few missing features and a small selection of entertainment apps. Despite leaning on a purportedly more performance-oriented Snapdragon SoC, our benchmarks demonstrates less aggressive performance.
- Apple's iPad 2, clearly intended for consumption, but relatively well-suited for productivity. It's thin, lightweight, and a solid performer.
Despite impressive extras like Synergy, business-specific features probably won't be what ultimately save the TouchPad. It turns out that professionals aren't all that different from regular consumers in what they're able to do with the tablet form-factor. Both groups need ample choice when it comes to the software able to address their needs. The plethora of apps in Apple's App Store is perhaps the iPad's most significant selling point, and it could certainly be enough for businesses to consider passing on the excellent work behind Synergy. We're not asking for hundreds of thousands of apps here. But HP should be going to market with a few hundred solid choices.
Given the state of HP's infrastructure, HP's asking price is high. The tablet space is very competitive, and the Android-based tablets are already struggling to battle it out amongst themselves. There's very little wiggle room for the TouchPad to coexist, which is why execution is critical. In the near-term, HP needs a lower price and more complete software foundation. After all, a business tablet without the ability to edit documents feels lacking.






















































