An open letter to HP

Dear HP,

As I read about the release of the HP TouchPad on July 1st, I can’t help feel both excited and disappointed. The operating system on the new TouchPad appears second to none. The “card-view” multi-tasking offers a simple, yet powerful user interface. In fact, the user interface is so nice that RIM blatantly copied it for use on their PlayBook.

In addition the TouchPad offers a dual-core Snapdragon processor, HP Synergy to provide a single interface for email, social media, calendars, contacts and more, just type, support for both Flash and HTML5, video calling on a beautiful 1024×768 multitouch screen, and so on. You’ve designed a tablet truly worthy of consideration even when compared to all other tablets currently on the market. 

One of my favorite features of the new HP TouchPad is the next generation of Touchstone technology that makes HP devices work better together. The ability to share a website between devices by simply touching them together is brilliant. However, the functionality is currently limited to the Palm Pre3. I’ve always thought highly of the the Palm Pre line of smartphones, but consider them too small for my needs. The 3.58-inch screen and vertical physical keyboard simply won’t work for me. I want a smartphone with a larger screen and a larger physical keyboard or a solid, fully functional touchscreen keyboard. You’ve created a new mobile ecosystem with the HP TouchPad as the center piece and developed incredible integration with your smartphones. However, you’ve failed to improve your smartphone offerings. As such you leave me with a difficult decision where none should exist.

I am a long time fan of the “Palm” operating system. I was a Palm Pilot evangelist back in the day. I faithfully pursued every new Palm device that hit the market until the operating system was finally laid to rest and became the webOS that we see today. Yours is the only smartphone platform that would make me consider changing cellular carriers; if only you could provide me with compelling hardware choices.

Why would you create such an incredible tablet only to fail to close the gap in the smartphone race with more choices? Only you know, but I beg you to expand your smartphone line to include devices with larger screens and both physical and touchscreen keyboards. Only then do I believe that your mobile ecosystem will be complete.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

sig

 

P.S. – If these devices are already on their way just nod and wink, I’ll understand.

 

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