WASHINGTON: US computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced that its rival to Apple's hot-selling iPad, the HP TouchPad, will go on sale in the United States 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, HP said in a statement.
The device will go on sale in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain later this year. There is no word on when the device would be availabile in Malaysia.
HP said the version of the TouchPad which goes on sale in the United States next month will be WiFi only.
Apple offers both WiFi and 3G versions of the iPad. HP said that it will be teaming up with AT&T in the United States to introduce a 3G version of the TouchPad later this year.
A TouchPad with 16GB of internal storage will sell for US$499.99 (RMRM1,510) in the United States while a 32GB version will sell for US$599.99 (RM1,812), HP said. It said pricing for other countries will be revealed later.
"What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice-president and general manager of HP's Palm Global Business Unit.
Rubinstein was chief executive of Palm when it was bought by HP last year.
The TouchPad weighs about 700g and has a 9.7in display - the same weight and screen size as the iPad.
The iPad accounted for 83.9% of the total 17.6 million Tablets sold in 2010, according to technology research company Gartner, which predicts worldwide Tablet sales will soar to 294.3 million in 2015.
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