HP hoping to release TouchPad in June, aiming for 100 million webOS devices

Last month, HP revealed in a special event at San Francisco its plans to reinvigorate the webOS platform. The introduction of the Veer, Pre3, and the tablet TouchPad will be the first steps HP has in store for this year. Now, final release dates for the three products may be coming almost simultaneously and sooner than we expected. According to Electronista, HP CEO Leo Apotheker revealed in a Monday briefing his expected plans for the upcoming webOS devices as well as a general sales goal for future devices based on the OS.

The smartphones Veer and Pre3 and the TouchPad tablet should all be seeing a launch sometime this June, and would only be the first in a wave of webOS releases. HP plans to expand and market the Palm-developed OS to as many new devices as possible, including printers and PCs. All in all, Leo Apotheker aims for an eventual 100 million webOS devices shipped. Although no time schedule was given for such an ambitious goal, HP can very well meet this target if the platform is pushed to the same consumer awareness levels as iOS and Android. Former company Palm, Inc. is predicted to not have had the resources necessary to propel and market webOS effectively.

Unfortunately, webOS will be in for an uphill battle against the likes RIM, Apple, and Google. If HP plans to make its acquisition of Palm worth the investment, webOS will really have to take off in the long run. Thus, a lot of pressure is on the HP TouchPad to showcase the potential of webOS to a market dominated by Apple and Google.

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