Though HP bought over Palm in April last year, it took almost a year before the first HP-branded webOS devices were announced. The TouchPad, which sports the same screen dimensions as the popular Apple iPad,  is the company's pioneer product in the up-and-coming tablet category.  At a press event in Shanghai, the company announced that China will be  the first country in our region to retail the HP TouchPad later this  year, with the rest of Asia to follow at a later date.   
While it's not uncommon for a device to take months to hit the market  after the announcement, will the TouchPad be rendered obsolete by the  time it hits store shelves, especially with the iPad 2 and waves of Google Android Honeycomb tablets waiting in the wings?  
One major advantage the Palo Alto company has over its competitors is  that it has the largest PC market share. It may be late to the slate  market compared with iOS and Android machines, but tools such as the  webOS PDK let developers port applications written for other platforms.  
Why HP bought and developed webOS instead of licensing Android
While HP could have opted to use Android instead of investing in its own  platform, there are strong reasons why this is money well spent.  "Differentiation from other competitive products will be crucial for  HP," according to Daryl Chiam, Canalys principal analyst. "With full  control over its operating system, HP can truly differentiate in  connected devices, as it has shown through Synergy, and more recently  with Touch to Share." 
Besides being able to create a strong ecosystem, HP can also generate  revenue from app sales. Both Apple and Google take a 30 percent cut from  developers for every app sold, a model which the Palo Alto company may  adopt. The trick, however, is in wooing the developer community. While  it may try to undercut the competition by taking less than 30 percent of  the sales revenue, Lillian Tay, principal analyst for Gartner, believes  that "HP must listen carefully to what the developers need and balance  with what consumers would want to pay. HP can also leverage best  practices learnt from the days of the Palm OS managing the developer  community and make it relevant for today."   
What HP needs to do to challenge the incumbents
While the company has established partnerships and channels for PC and  services retail, Lillian says "the company needs to grow relationships  with telecommunications service providers", as well as leverage its  experiences in the enterprise business and take the lead to offer  enterprise-grade security.   
In fact, security is one area which the company sees a need to address.  "Part of the challenges of having digital content and information is the  challenge of privacy," said Phil McKinney, vice president and CTO for  HP PSG. "We're going to see the emergence of digital fortresses. The  digital fortress is really a trusted third party where you can have your  information held, managed, distributed, coordinated with somebody whose  jobs is to protect that information, especially given the number of  devices we have in our pockets."
Moreover, reaching a tipping point is also important when it comes to  convincing developers to devote time and resources to code for the  platform. Daryl suggests that "bundling a webOS smart phone and TouchPad  for retail should also be seriously considered by HP--as getting more  webOS devices in the hands, homes and offices of users will help build  the ecosystem".  
What are HP's chances?
It may be late in the game, but that doesn't mean the tablet market is  doomed to a duopoly. One of the difficulties in coding for Android is  that there is a wide range of devices with different specifications. As  such, even games ported from iOS such as Splinter Cell: Conviction looks  graphically worse on Android machines. 
HP, however, has control of all elements of hardware and OS. Once it  manages to hit a critical mass in the market, there is a high chance of  strong developer support. And in the tablet wars, that is one critical  success factor.
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Is the HP TouchPad ready to take on the iPad?
 
Abdullah Shahzad
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