

HP to Re-Enter Smartphone Market With “Phablets” in India - zwieback
http://recode.net/2014/01/15/hp-to-re-enter-smartphone-market-with-phablets-in-india/

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cygwin98
HP has no vision, otherwise, TouchPad and WebOS could have been huge now. They
were way ahead of the time on Node.js/Javascript stuff.

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blisterpeanuts
Wretched leadership. In my opinion, they should have kept the tablet on the
market for a year at least. As I recall, they pulled it after just a couple of
months. Then they decided to get out of the desktop computer business which
while maybe not the most booming market today, they were still the leaders and
could have gone after the high end netbook/touchbook market.

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sirkneeland
"A couple of months" would have been an improvement. They had it on the market
for 48 days. I was working there at the time. What happened with Apothekar is
insane and borderline criminal destruction of value.

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abduhl
This is rather disappointing.

These smartphones will run Android rather than some version of webOS. I really
enjoy my TouchPad still.

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hkmurakami
I really wish I had bought one of them when it went on a firesale in 2011. Was
it $99 or $79? Either way, it was pretty spectacular!

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freehunter
They don't hold up terribly well anymore, but the one I have is still pretty
reliable. I ditched WebOS years ago due to the complete lack of support and
installed Android. It's running 4.2 I believe. Slow, to be sure, but it works.
My SO uses it to watch Netflix.

I still use the HP Touchpad bluetooth keyboard that was sold as an accessory
though. Nice keyboard, even if it's missing a lot of keys I wish it had (such
as home, end, pgup, pgdn, delete).

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ihsw
If they're going to be anything like their desktops and laptops, the software
will be filled with crapware and the hardware will be impossibly difficult to
service.

> The devices will run Android 4.2, a.k.a. Jelly Bean.

Sounds like a cash grab to me -- yet another vendor charging for OS upgrades.
Very depressing.

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hkmurakami
I remember reading a couple years ago that the Touchpad (their tablet that
went on a firesale after a lackluster launch) was actually one of the most
serviceable tablets out there, built very much like a PC, for better or for
worse.

Can't speak for the software side though.

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freehunter
WebOS devices were great for software tinkering because they were able to boot
a kernel over USB. If you "bricked" the device and it wouldn't boot, you
didn't really brick it. You could load the kernel over USB and flash the
proper software back to it. Loved those things.

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AdmiralAsshat
It's a pity how much their standards have sunk. The HP Touchpad was a decent
tablet (a little late to the party with iPad 1 specs after the iPad 2 hit the
market), but it was serviceable for the time, and I thought the build quality
was excellent. It felt like a high-end tablet. The Wireless Bluetooth keyboard
tablet, as well, I still find excellent.

Then they release the Slate two years later, and it feels like a cheap POS.
The fact that they're aiming these for India with sub-standard display
suggests they're trying to tap the budget/third-world market again.

What a waste.

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officemonkey
I've been very happy with my Nexus 7. So much so that I wish it had a phone.

I know it's crazy, because it's huge, but if you can get beyond the oddness of
it (cf: people usings iPads as cameras,) I think the "Phablets" are a form
factor so practical that fashion will have to embrace it.

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cstejerean
You actually wish you could hold it up to your ear? Or are you thinking more
along the lines of a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone? Using an iPad as a
camera for the occasional picture is not too bad, but I can't imagine holding
a 7" device to your ear for any call exceeding 30 seconds.

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bluedino
It'd work fine for headphones + mic. Plus in the car it plays through the
audio system as well. I just wouldn't want to lug around an iPad Mini or other
~ 7" tablet everywhere I go.

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officemonkey
The nice thing about the Nexus 7 is it fits in my coat and jacket pockets
easily. Oh, and in my cargo shorts (my non-work summer attire.) The iPad mini
doesn't.

So the only time it would feel like lugging is in the summer. And it's not
that big a deal carrying it to/from work.

