The Wi-Fi TouchPad, running the webOS firmware created by Palm, goes on sale Friday starting at $500 in stores ranging from Amazon to Walmart, the same outlets that handle its PCs and printers. But the tablet is "enterprise ready," says HP's David Gee, vice president of marketing and enterprise solution for the Palm Global Business Unit. He oversees the marketing strategy for all webOS devices as well as development of webOS-based "solutions" for business customers.

He's got a tough job ahead of him. about the TouchPad's prospect for success against 's 2 and the latest crop of tablets running the 3.1 firmware. But the market is still barely a year old, since it was created in 2010 with the release of the first iPad.

BACKGROUND:

Via webOS 3.0, TouchPad offers what HP calls "essential management and ." HP, like Apple and Google, is relying initially on the features in Exchange ActiveSync, a push synchronization protocol that links mobile devices with Microsoft Exchange and leverages features like password management, remote device wipe and others. The OS also supports a full panoply of Wi-Fi authentication and security standards, and two VPN clients: IPSEC VPN, and Any Connect VPN. TouchPad leverages HP's printing and ePrint technologies.

With today's launch, MobileIron will offer a native webOS client to its . HP is in talks with all the other leading MDM vendors to do the same thing, Gee says.