HP unveils 3 new devices, including its new TouchPad tablet

Today at HP and Palm ‘s ‘Think Beyond’ webOS event, the lack of Palm logos was a tell-tale sign that HP would steal the show.

“We have a history of firsts. We have a tradition of creating firsts,” said Todd Bradley, the Executive VP of the Personal System Group at Hewlett-Packard , a company known for its sturdy computers, printers and laptops. With a focus on bringing scale to the mass markets, HP has acquired Palm and added hundreds of engineers to its force.

Jon Rubinstein, who helped to create the iPod and is now the senior VP and general manager at Hewlett-Packard took the stage to unveil 3 new HP devices all connected with HP’s Synergy product, which merges data from across the cloud and brings it together in an easy way.

The new products are:

The Veer is the smallest webOS smartphone to date; it is the same size as a credit card and will be available in early spring. “Never before has a smartphone done so much, and felt so little,” says Rubinstein.

The smartphone for professionals will come in two versions- HSPA and and EVDO Rev A world phone — 8GB or 16GB. It will be available this summer.

This is the first in the webOS TouchPad family. Using the newest Snapdragon, dual core 1.2GHz CPU, it’s “screaming fast.” The device weighs in at 1.5lbs and is 13mm thick. It is compatible with QuickOffice, Google Docs, Dropbox, and Boet as well as VPN, video calling, and wireless printing. Amazon has announced it will provide a Kindle app for the device. HP TouchPad is scheduled to be available in the summer. Exact pricing and availability will be announced at a later date.

The three new devices come in S, M and L flavors. webOS accounts will work in tandem on the phones and the TouchPad — just log in and it populates your info across all devices.

Samsung’s Windows 8 devices now up for pre-order, hitting the market on October 26th

Not big on the Surface RT tablet and the Windows RT operating system? Want some complete Windows 8 action? Well, Samsung has a number of devices up for pre-sale today that may excite your inner wallet.

Today, the company began to accept pre-orders for its line of Windows 8 machines, which will become available on October 26th. Why that date? That’s the very moment in which Windows 8 itself makes the mark called ‘General Availability.’ It’s the go moment, essentially.

If you want a Windows 8 computer, Samsung likely has you covered. According to its official press release – which you can find a cached copy of here – the company has no fewer than seven distinct products across several lines to support the Windows 8 market.

Ultrabook running Windows 8? Check. Ultrabook running Windows 8 with a touchscreen? Yep! Tablets? Yes. Convertibles? Naturally. I don’t want to drown you in details, but here is the mix of devices that Samsung has prepared for Windows 8’s big day [Note, we are using their Samsung-sanctioned official, full names below]:

If you are keeping a longer score, that Series 9 notebook is the current model of the older Series 9 that TNW all but drooled over some time past . As Ultrabooks went, we reviewed, it was the cream of the crop.

Expect a slew of updates from other OEMs in the next few days as they scramble to meet the gauntlet toss that Microsoft unveiled this morning in the form of its Surface device lineup . That tablet will begin at $499, without a ‘snappable’ keyboard, which cost between $119 and $129, if not purchased with a Surface device.

What will the Samsung crop cost? We happen to have just that information:

Naturally, those are the MSRP figures.

Start your watches, the launch day for Windows 8 is now less than 10 days ahead of us. Expect the chaos to only intensify.

Top Image Credit: opopododo

Android Captures 22% Of The Tablet Market As iPad Slips

Soon after research highlighting that Android has surpassed Nokia to become the world’s most popular smartphone OS was published, a new report from Strategy Analytics suggests that Google’s mobile OS has now captured a record 22% of the tablet market.

According to figures stated in the report, global tablet shipments reached 9.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010 with Apple continuing to dominate the tablet market with a 75% global share. Although impressive, Apple’s share slipped 20% from 95% in the third quarter, thanks largely to the apparent success of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab which sold over one million units in two months after it launched.

Despite warnings from Google that its Android operating system at the time wasn’t specifically tailored for large-screen tablet devices, manufacturers rushed their Android tablets to market in the fourth quarter, offering low cost devices aimed at capturing early-adopters and those without the budget for an Apple device.

Strategy Analytics expects Android to increase share in the first half of 2011, we tend to agree with them. At the recent CES event, a number of high-powered Android tablet devices were announced, most running Google’s new Android Honeycomb operating system, software that Google hopes will tempt many users away from Apple’s iOS-toting iPad.

Apple is expected to announce its next-generation iPad within the next couple of months, rumours suggesting it will become available in early Summer. We imagine Apple will record phenomenal sales of its new tablet but as the tablet market continues to expand, Android tablets will continue to provide significant competition for consumer hearts and wallets.