Tablet Wars: Can TouchPad best iPad and Android?
Apple has been the big dog on the tablet block, practically defining the industry with the release of its iPad, and while Android is fast on its tale, a third player, HP is hoping to make a dent with a drastically different approach.
HP -- who's acquisition of Palm gave it the high-regarded WebOS software -- believes that its philosophy to the world of tablet software will win out over the paradigms defined by Apple and Google.
HP vice president of developer relations for its WebOS software, Richard Kerris, said that its upcoming TouchPad, which uses the WebOS, will make for an environment that app-developers and businesses prefer.
Apple and Google have it wrong, he said.
I don't think android has done a great job with the honeycomb of tablets, Kerris told Fox Business. There's a lot of fragmentation for example, and developers are frustrated.
Fragmentation refers to the fact that multiple versions of the Honeycomb software exist. Since the system is open, manufacturers are free to make tweaks to match their own products, but that means developers can never be 100 percent sure what environment their apps will be playing on.
It's akin to the wild wild west, Kerris says, and it's fragmented and it's anything goes. And that's kind of frustrating to developers.
Apple on the other hand controls its software and hardware precisely, giving stability to developers, but also curtailing some of the creative process.
And here we come in the middle. We make our own hardware. We make our own software, and by providing a confident and consistent environment for both developers and customers, they are going to have an experience of one they will really like.
But like Google, Kerris says that HP isn't afraid to open up, and in fact encourages development.
We support what we call the homebrew community which allows you to go off the beaten path if you want and explore other areas. And some phones or tablets will call that jailbreaking, but not us, we think that's really great to do. So I think we have a nice spot in the middle here.
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