HP announces iPad competitor, the "TouchPad"

It looks like it HP wants to take a bite out of Apple's tablet market share, with their newly announced tablet, the oddly named "TouchPad". The TouchPad seems to be sporting specs very similar to the iPad, or rather, closer to what the iPad 2 may contain. It's also expected to use the WebOS 3.0 operating system, a side-effect of HP's purchase of Palm last year.

After watch HP's promotional video for it, I also noticed that its interface in places, is eerily similar to the iPad's. Here's some pictures for comparison:

On the left we have HP's Touchpad, and on the right we have the iPad. It seems like a blatant attempt at copying the iPad's interface if you ask me. One can only hope it handles as smoothly as the iPad's. All in all, it's a welcome change to see a tablet that has the same level of polish as the iPad, however the jury is out on whether or not TouchPad will succeed where many a tablet has failed.

If you'd like to see the TouchPad promotion video, click here, and for more details, and the full list of specs, click past the break.

HP Touchpad specifications:

• 9.7 inch LCD display
• 1.2 Ghz dual-core Snapdragon processor
• 1GB of ram
• 16 or 32GBs of on-board storage
• 802.11n WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Front facing 1.3 Mp camera (for video calling)
• Gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass
• 3G, 4G, and WiFi-only versions planned

According to Engadget, HP is planning to release the WiFi model first, with 3G and 4G versions following shortly after. As for a price and release date, HP only offered a comment of, "Coming this summer", and went on to say that pricing would be decided at a later date.