Jon Rubinstein introduced the HP Palm tablet back in February. Picture: Kimihiro Hoshino Source: AFP
- First webOS tablet
- Launches in US on July 1
The top iPad rivals in 2011
COMPUTER giant Hewlett-Packard will put its rival to Apple's iPad, the TouchPad, on sale in the US on July 1.
The touchscreen tablet computer, which is powered by the webOS software platform bought from Palm, will be available in Britain, France, Ireland and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July.
The device will go on sale in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain later this year.
HP said the version of the TouchPad which goes on sale in the United States next month will be Wi-Fi only.
Apple offers both Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the iPad. HP said that it will be teaming up with AT&T to introduce a 3G version of the TouchPad later this year.
A TouchPad with 16 gigabytes of internal storage will sell for $499.99 in the United States while a 32GB version will sell for $599.99, HP said.
It said pricing for other countries will be revealed later.
"What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager of HP's Palm Global Business Unit, said.
Mr Rubinstein was chief executive of Palm when it was bought by HP last year.
HP, the world's top personal computer maker, acquired Palm and its webOS platform for $1.2 billion in a bid to become a player in the fast-growing market for smartphones and tablet computers.
TouchPad weighs about 700g and has a 9.7-inch display - the same weight and screen size as the iPad.
The iPad accounted for 83.9 per cent of the total 17.6 million tablets sold in 2010, according to technology research company Gartner, which predicts worldwide tablet sales will approach 300 million in 2015.
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