Has HP done enough to rival the iPad?

10.02.2011
Hewlett-Packard launched a slick-looking tablet computer on Wednesday based on a new release of its webOS, but the question many are now asking is, has HP done enough to steal some business from Apple's trailblazing iPad?

HP launched at an in San Francisco on Wednesday morning. It also unveiled two smartphones based on the same software: , a mini-smartphone about the height of a credit card, and , a full-fledged smartphone aimed at business users.

Physically, the 10-inch TouchPad certainly looks like the iPad, though it's hard to imagine a completely original design for a touchscreen tablet. But what HP hopes will set it apart is the software, in particular the tight integration it says it can offer among devices running webOS.

"Synergy is our central idea," said Jon Rubinstein, the former Palm CEO who joined HP when it bought Palm last year. "Because when we bring different things together -- whether it's different applications, different software, different devices, even different companies -- and get them to work in sync, we achieve a powerful result that's much greater than the sum of its parts."

That's a tough way to differentiate yourself against Apple, which is known for the tight integration among its own products: Plug an iPhone into your Macbook, and it syncs at the click of a button. Download music to a Mac from iTunes, and it rolls effortlessly to your iPod the next time you plug it in.

But HP claims to have a good integration story of its own. For a start, it says it will build a wider universe of webOS devices. In addition to the tablet and smartphones, webOS will provide the technology for its Web-connected printers, and as Todd Bradley, head of HP's Personal Systems Group, revealed Wednesday, it will find its way eventually into HP PCs, though details won't come until later in the year.