Best Buy displays get fleshed out with TouchPad material, real working Veers 76
Sun, 12 Jun 2011 9:35 pm EDT 
HP’s big display tables at Best Buy are finally getting some product on them. Right now the only devices you’ll see are fully-functional Veer smartphones, but that’s better than the dummy phones Palm used to distribute (don’t know the 'why' behind that, just glad it’s over). The displays are clean and uncluttered (save for that ironic stack of Brother printers to the side) and already have placards up teasing the TouchPad’s eventual arrival.
The info sheets are essentially condensed versions of HP’s TouchPad website, touching on the tablet’s key marketing points: multitasking, Beats Audio and Flash, Synergy, Touch-to-Share, Just Type, and generic apps. We’re not entirely certain if the Veer phones will remain at the TouchPad table once the tablets arrive, or if they’re merely placeholders. Regardless, they kind of serve like a miniature introduction to webOS and the TouchPad. A few more shots are after the break.
Thanks to Mahootzki and Treiz for the pictures!
76 Comments
nice.....
Not so nice if you're a pre minus owner running 1.4.5 with the oreo effect, cracked shell and having to restart your phone 3 times a day.
..Still waiting on the Pre3 for Sprint, but my hopes are fading so google/HTC will gain me as a customer by the end of July.
I also agree with the Analysts report of HP is making a mistake of coming in at the same price as Apple.
Your ordinary customers don't know what WebOS is, for the same amount of money why wouldn't they go with the ipad2, which already has a reputation and strong foothold?
Give it a rest already.
I too am a day one Sprint Pre owner. The difference is, I am not a whinny.......
Horses whinny, janter's whiny.
The other difference is you use your pre as a suppository for your own pleasure.
You sick ****
I am getting me a 3D on the 24th, baby!
Still no mention of HP "making it right" for all of us Pre - losers rockin webOS 1.4.5. I'm uninstalling all of my Apps, strippin' it down and getting ready to move to a new Android or WP7 baby. Sorry HP but you've let me down.
Honestly? I'm running a 2.1 Pre minus, but I don't consider myself a loser... and why are you going through the trouble of uninstalling all your apps? And who are you referring to as, 'baby?' That seems a little left-field to me...
Unfortunately, I ordered an EVO 3D. The value of those phones are high so I figure if I hate it I can trade or sell it for a Pre 3.
why is this unfortunate?
I'm also looking at the EVO 3D
Okay, I'm a Pre- owner going all the way back to launch day. Yes, I was rather disappointed that by the time June 6th, 2011 came around there was still no webOS upgrade option for me.
That being said, I don't think HP needs to "make it right" for me. They owe me nothing. They had nothing to do with the decisions made before acquiring Palm. For that matter, even Palm didn't have a moral obligation to "make it right."
That being said, I am no longer under contract with Sprint and it is very likely that I will transfer my number to AT&T (really hoping this won't be my only option) or Verizon or whoever will offer the Pre3.
If HP knows anthing about marketing - they will have a strict policy against any other products being in the vecinity of their displays (let alone a stack of competitors boxes right next to it. Looks like the monitor clearance table is on the other side.
Expect to see the HP police out at this Best Buy.
I'm sure they were just in the middle of stocking. The Best Buy I saw at the end of last week had the exact same table set up, but with one black dummy unit and a non-powered White Veer.
There was a table about four feet away with all competing tablets (Playbook Tab, Acer Iconia Tab, Samsung Galaxy Tab) powered up with apps to demo.
Looks to me like they're sitting there with a price display on them. I'm sure JimBob at Best Buy doesn't care what's sitting up against the HP display.
I spent a lot of time in retail, I would guess by launch date that will be cleaned up in most Best Buy's by store and field management. As HP has shown, they are spending money, this will get BB to pay attention to their displays.
Those are Brother MFC's. They'll be in people's offices and dens long before the unboxing of the TouchPad demo units.
Yea, I hope the HP police comes. That is how all of my local Best Buys are set up now. I'm really hoping that they get a monster Banner that you could see across the store like Apple has for their Apple section but expand that banner idea further to every other retail for the TouchPad like Walmart, Target, Office Max, Sam's Club etc. That is how you promote, take the competitions idea and expand upon it! HP is a big enough company to spend the money to make it happen! :)
Actually HP or any other company for that matter can only request that only their products are stacked next to the table. The company pays for THAT space, not the space around it. The company pays for an end-cap, not the space next to it. And by the way, if any company knows something about marketing, I believe HP would be among the top.
I think it'll be foolish if HP doesn't release their Pre3 at the same time. The biggest "oohing" they'll get from customers is the touch to share. Last I checked, you can't do that with a Veer... or can you?
It's been confirmed this is a go for not only the pre 3 but also Veer and pre 2.
If they ever update the veer and pre2. Judging from HP's track-record, you can only expect to have the OS that's on the device when it ships.
I don't think HP has ever delivered an OTA update to their phones in America. Pre 2 still runs 2.0. Unacceptable.
Hey it works for Android. Very few handsets, and even fewer tablets, ever see any official updates or support and yet Android arguably has the most loyal fan base out there.
So while you or I might be put off by disposable phones and tablets, there's plenty of people not bothered by it at all. Mindful of that it all boils down to your priorities.
If you like regular OS updates, the only company out there proven to offer them is Apple. My wife has a 2 year old 3GS that will be able to run iOS 5. Meanwhile, my Pre+ remains unsupported and my upgrade path, the Pre 2, is still waiting for a single point update.
Android has the most loyal fan base?? REALLY? have you ever met an iPerson before?
touch to share? Where did they confirm this? Every video I've seen they've only been able to showcase the Pre3 sharing a webpage a user is viewing with the touchpad. I also thought the Pre2 didn't have the hardware to do this either?
Veer will have touch-to-share after OTA update. I don't think the Pre2 supports this. I do believe a coil is inteh back of the Pre3 and Veer to allow touch-to-share to happen. Not in Pre2.
Could be wrong, but this is what I was told some time age.
Yes, they said this multiple times, that they need a special communication coil for this, which is present in the Veer and the Pre 3 and that the Veer just need a software update to use it.
Veer is listed on HP to support touch to share. Not sure where people are pulling Pre 2 from, I have not seen that anywhere.
It has been planned as an over the air update to support this with the Veer as well. Let's hope that happens before the Touchpad shows up.
http://www.precentral.net/rubinstein-veer-pre-3-touchpad
they - per you they are foolish because it's not coming for a few months.
My bestbuy here had no idea what the touchpad was when i called today, so i'll probably have to preorder directly from HP. Any other options for preordering?? Anyone know if Amazon is doing June 19th preorders?
2 touchstones, an extra charger and a 16GB touchpad will cost you around $700 plus tax.
F that. I fell into the hype of the original pre and paid $50 for each touchstone charger, $20 for the touchstone back cover for the phone, $20 for a car charger.
months later it went way down in price.
I'll be waiting for the price to drop.
That's the case for almost all tech (not that I'm disagreeing with you).
With Apple as the only exclamation. But this just means that they keep their high prices for at least a year until the next product ships.
This actually is worse, but the customer feels less "ripped" off as if they would just rip him off for the first few months ;)
OMG!!!!! A touchpad on display!!!!
Oh wait, it's just a cardboard cut-out. Here I thought HP FINALLY delivered some hardware.
In the coming weeks I guess... What's that tiny child's toy next to it with the tiny-tiny screen?
that would be your ****
Is that a Veer in your pocket, or are you just not that happy to see me!
Better be a Pre3 in the pocket if they are making that kind of mistake.
On a side, I might have something Veer in my pocket if I see a Pre3.
I said NOT HAPPY as in small size.
If you have to explain it...
If you can't read....
If you have to defend your explanation...
Can our phones read QR codes?
ha, I just saw that, too. I don't think gen 1 or 2 do with their camera quality. Pre3 should, maybe veer?
But I think it's mostly for other hardware at this point.
We are clearly not the target audience for HPalm these days anyway.
I agree. I hope we're wrong, but as a pre minus user, I get the vibe HP doesn't care about the current customer WebOS users.
I also sadly get the vibe that Sprint wants to migrate all their webos users onto Android. They keep sending me emails about a new Android phone every month, and they took away the 1 year upgrade which forced a lot of people to either take your chances and wait another year for a webos phone or get on the Android ship before April 1st.
I don't think Sprint wants to force anyone to migrate to Android. I think they are trying to get as many Android phones as possible because that's what is selling right now.
See? That's a sensible answer. There isn't a giant 'anti-webOS' conspiracy out there against HP... it's just that right now, no one cares about webOS, and they don't anticipate a lot of phones selling. Simple.
Depressing, but simple.
I dont get it... It's not just HP that dont 'make things right'. I got a Iphone 3g before the 4 came out and Apple refuses to give me a new one. My son has a BB Bold but as soon as he bought it a new model showed up and yup you guessed it, Blackberry refused to give him a new one. I bought a new Mazda 5 last year & they had the affront to disallow a lease with a new model!
The nerves of those people. Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned taking responsibility for your actions / purchases?
HP Promised 2.x upgrade to legacy devices in October of 2010. Then they did a 360. This is a totally different situation than what you described.
HP said they would "Make things Right". They were the ones who decided to correct it. Now people are just asking what that means. I don't see this issue with that.
prenutt was arguing that the 'make things right' thing was a problem... 'not acceptable.'
He's on your side.
The Pre 3 does. The Veer still has a fixed-focus camera.
Yes, I've done it on my Sprint Pre- with the free "QR offline Decoder" application in the app catalog.
Nice! Didn't know that app exists.
It might be 2.0 and above though. There was a QR Decoder that worked for 1.4.5, but there's a new one for 2.0 that works better in my opinion.
I am meta-doctored
All webOS phones should be able to read QR codes. You don't need autofocus to read QR codes you only need that for regular 1D bar codes.
The Veer stays with the Touhpad display - Veer will be used to demonstrate touch-to-share. Confirmed.
smallville we need to get on July 1st fast. I can´t wait.
Nothing at all in Brandon, FL. BB. Hope that changes soon.
Sarasota, FL here. Just a plastic veer with the rest of the phones. Some little promo line above the phone area like everybody on but thats it. No HP display as of last week.
I wonder if the TouchPad release will also be at 5pm like Apple? It's on a Friday just like Apple.
i commend them on trying to make a much more polished presentation. the touchpad and veer are not for me but this is a much better and more polished way to present the products. It seems to show them in a good light.
Looks good to me. And oddly, no one in this comment section has really found a reason to be pissed off about this... just mildly annoyed. That's gotta be a HUGE win for HP.
I saw the same set up (without the brother printers) at my local Best Buy over the weekend as well as the endcap display for the Veer. The TouchPad display also had a couple of Veers just like in the picture and both were live. It looks as if they could swap out the Veers when the Pre3's get in.
At a local Walmart they also had a tablet display around from the iPad2 display. Clearly, no TouchPad or other devices for that matter but they did have up a pricing ticket for the TouchPad 32GB. Seems like they're ready too.
My local BB, here on Long Island, NY (Baldwin) didnt even have a table set up, or anythign like it.
They did have a Veer on display next to probably 50 or so other smartphones.
Were they just missing promotional material for the Veer when the photo was taken, or is there only material for the Touchpad at the table? Having a fully functional phone there is fine, but some promotional material to explain it would be nice.
I think I'm going to BestBuy right now so I can get a feel at the Veer. I still haven't seen one in person.
i think that store is best buy bay parkway/NY, and those phones are not real, they still use dummy phones.
This is the most advertizing we've seen for any Palm HP product so far, I am very excited!
To answer your question, it's rather elementary. While the analyst is skeptical, the real answer to the question lies on the fact that the ipad has already been out for over a year. For those who would've bought the ipad already did and got the upgrade as well (thus the inflated sales numbers). My brother can testify to his third purchase (dropped first one, replaced, then upgraded). And with a load of other tablets on the market (all them thar droids and crackberry), the ipad and rivals are merely 'generic.' The touchpad coming out will bring the market up a level (despite it's oh so thick 0.54 inch).
The whole appstore thing is really just an well drummed out nag. When it comes down to it, there's only so many apps you can have before the whole market becomes monotonous. How many **** apps do you think itunes has? Or streaming radio apps for niche music? Or music players that do the same thing? If you eliminate the copycats, worthless apps (brostache, **** apps, movie soundboards, ringtone apps), etc.
I'd rather have an app store with a few thousand apps to choose from. I don't think I'd EVER go through hundreds of thousands of apps in the entire life of my tablet.
At the end of the day, touchpad will do just fine, especially when you consider the enterprise. For people like me, we simply want a tablet running our favorite platform, webOS. Nothing else will suffice.
"The whole appstore thing is really just an well drummed out nag."
I own a Pre+ and an iPad and assure you that the app store really does matter. My iPad has an incredible RSS reader, support from all the banking institutions, lots of games, PayPal, Amazon, Hulu, Netlfix and more.
While that stuff may not matter to you, anyone that has used iOS or Android is sure to notice the huge disparity in not only the quantity of webOS apps, but the quality too. After all, what good is a $500 tablet with no apps?
The Best Buy in Beaumont, TX has the Veer sign over a number of phones from AT&T and a dummy phone. I hate it when they go cheap with no support.
HP really needs to step up the game on this one. I just came from Best Buy and saw this little 4'x 4'display. The display is at a distance from other products so it doesn't get lost in the clutter but 4x4 display is not going to cut it. Not when your Apple competition takes all of their computers, iPhone, iPad all in one gigantic display drowning out all others & not to mention taking up a good chunk of the store. The other problem is the 1 and only slowly working Veer... really? 2 were located over by the phone section (displays only) & 2 were on the 4x4 display only one worked. It seems like you want to fail in this new market. HP you have an opportunity to show off all you have to offer printers, computers, lap tops PHONES!, & tablets. When you spread out your products you let your competition drowned you out of the market. Not to mention loosing the perception of an ecosystem you are building with synergy.
First impression, it looks kinds like the Apple table at Best Buy
My local AT&T Store has 1 dummy Veer and still says they will probably never stock them or be able to order them.
Best Buy in Raleigh NC has the display, with one white Veer. I enjoyed checking out the keyboard and was reassured it's as easy to use as my pre+ or maybe even easier. But I'm Verizon and thus will wait for pre3.
While browsing the tablet section of BB, I opened up the HP TouchPad website on a competitor and left it on there - haha, hope someone saw it and was made to rethink getting any other brand.
Won't 16gb wifi be plenty for most people with the cloud holding more and more and mobile hotspot being cheaper than a 3g plan?