HP today confirmed a number of details about its upcoming tablets at the Fortune Brainstorm TECH conference.
First up will be HP’s Windows 7-based Slate 500 which could be released as early as this fall. Executive VP Todd Bradley also revealed that the device would be geared more towards the corporate market than the consumer one, suggesting that a webOS tablet will target the latter.
Bradley also talked about HP’s relationship with Microsoft. While one of its closest partners, Bradley indicated that there were still areas where the two companies competed. Mobile operating systems looks set to become one of those.
Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s former CEO, then confirmed that webOS tablets were also coming but did not provide any timelines. He also reaffirmed that HP is looking to offer new webOS-powered netbooks as well as smartphones and printers. He added that new product development is moving forward “aggressively.”
Rubinstein also promised that webOS 2.0 will be available before the end of the year (on these new devices perhaps?). He also confirmed that Flash 10.1 is coming to webOS and that it was already at the testing stage.
Meanwhile, in an interview with German FAZ.NET, HP CEO Mark Hurd suggested that the Palm brand might become a sub-brand much as Compaq (which HP bought in 2001) has become. Looks like we will be seeing some HP Palm devices soon. Could we also see some webOS devices without the Palm branding? And what about the iPAQ brand?