HP to announce TouchPad for Aussies on July 26 41
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 9:55 am EDT 
Grab your kangaroos and didgeridoos, folks, the HP TouchPad is going Down Under! According to reports out of Australia, HP has sent out invitations to the Aussie tech media inviting them to an event next Tuesday where the tech giant will “celebrate technology that works like nothing else.”
“Works like nothing else,” eh? That sounds familiar. Yeah, we’d say it’s a safe bet that this is indeed the TouchPad coming to Australia, even if HP was notably mum in their announcement about what the technology is to be. This will mark webOS’ first appearance in Australia (certainly a welcome one to Aussie and WebOS Internals chief Rod Whitby), in fact it’s the first time a Palm or webOS product has landed on Oz’s shores in a very long time.
With the TouchPad currently available in the United States, Canada, UK, France, and Germany, it was only a matter of time before HP started knocking off the other locales on their list of launch countries. Still to go: Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand (which we suspect will get wrapped in with the Australia launch). And, you know, the rest of the world. Pricing and the actual release date for Australia, that we don't know yet. But we imagine that might be something to be discussed on the 26th...
Source: iTech Report, Current
41 Comments
sigh.... but where are the webos phones!?
We can be optimistic and hope that phones will be included in the announcement?
I'm sure they'll get their answer by the 26th. If they advertise Touch-to-Share as one of the features of the TouchPad (or even works best with other webOS devices), then it's almost a sure bet that they'll be bringing in the webOS phones sooner rather than later.
its also available in Ireland !
:)
Woohoo!
-- Rod
Cept you'll be gone Rod. :-P It's like the WebOS mascot not bein' around for the home game... kinda disappointing. J/K Have a safe trip sir.
Didn't they check your diary before setting the date? :-)
Well that's great news BUT sadly I won't be buying one until they release a fix for my brand new Pre2 which continually resets (since day 1) for no apparent reason, even after doctoring and a 3.5 hour support chat with HP. (Which also resulted in breaking my Yahoo email connectivity!)
And to think I was going to pass this onto my wife and then buy a Pre3 and Touchpad...........That ain't gonna happen.
HP have also quitely hurt their prospects of other possible perspective buyers that I know due to pissing off their customers with lemons.
Frustrated and disappointed!
So does that mean - when I go to the US and buy a touchpad there, I could select which country I want to be linked to ??? (Im an Aussie who lives in Japan with a Pixi plus activated in OZ)
Exchanging the Pre2 was not an option?
I figure after doctoring and calling tech support, if the problem is not solved, I would return the damn thing and get another one.
Nothing against you, it just ticks me off when ppl come here and complain about **** like this. You have an option to return the thing do so, just like you can call tech and doctor the phone, you can exchange it. SO please stop crying, use the options you have.
I've had problems with my Pre- a few times, if the doctor doesn't fix it, I bring it to the store and get another one.
DD007 quoted - "Exchanging the Pre2 was not an option?"
"I bring it to the store and get another one."
I'm in Australia, the store is 10,000 miles away in the US. Not so easy to take it to the store.
Also frustrated and disappointed with a Sprint pre minus upgraded to webos 2.x.
I have to revert to 1.4.5 due to major lag issues with 2.x on the pre minus.
give me a new phone hp. I don't need a new tablet.
Honestly it's really embarrassing to have a phone with webos. I'm traveling to Aruba with a large group. Fortunately i'm the only one with webos, everyone else on Android and Iphone is kind enough to let me use their skype app to call home.
you suck hp.
Are you seriously complaining about an update that was never intended for the Pre?
I'm complaining about no update to the pre minus users.
Yeah, those **** And people can't get ios5 updates for their original iPhones either!
And I still can't get webOS for my Zire!
God, get over it and MOVE ON.
I have heard, in Australia, more than 90% of the smartphone market is taken by iPhone. Hopefully pre-3 also comes there
Hopefully the Pre3 comes anywhere. :(
hahaha good one Sacherji!
what about India, China, Brazil and Russia?
Get yourselves a Rod. :-)
I do not think it is a good idea to grab a kangaroo.
"Grab your kangaroos and didgeridoos"?! Stereotype there is almost as bad as Engadget!!
I think they are trying to be funny and not stereotype. The key word is trying.
You might as well put another shrimp on the barbie for me.
It's slip another shrimp on the barbie. And we call them prawns... apparently we only said "shrimp" to avoid confusing Americans!
Also, nobody I know barbecues prawns.
Also: they had better be opening up the App Catalog to Australians! (It would be rather embarrassing to have only free apps available to TouchPad users.)
And whilst we're at it, how about opening the App Catalog to other Aussie webOS users? Against my better judgement, I selected "Australia" as my Pre2 country... maybe they'll now offer more than just free apps?
Further analysis:
The "like nothing else" slogan is meant for all of webOS, not just TouchPad, I think. So it's a webOS announcement. I speculate that HP offered TouchPad to a few different carriers as an exclusive, with the condition that they must also carry the Pre3 and Veer.
I further speculate, that carrier will be Telstra. (Damn them.) And it'll probably be stocked anywhere Telstra and/or HP sells stuff. Officeworks, DSE, JB Hi-Fi, Myer, etc. etc.
Summary of Calroth's speculation:
HP Pre3 (exclusive to Telstra)
HP Veer (exclusive to Telstra)
HP TouchPad 3G (exclusive to Telstra, note also "3G")
HP TouchPad Wi-Fi
Everything sold at generic Aussie retail outlets
App Catalog open for Australia
yeah, they should have said something about uggs or arkubras
I'm sure I read that NZ would be on the 28th, but I cant find the link now.
And also, according to some HP executives, the TouchPad will arrive to Mexico on October.
Whoa, really? Interesting nugget, but we need to have it confirmed. I was starting to lose hope again. (Mexico does exist HP, see?)
http://bit.ly/m3pibx that's where I read it. It's nice that webOS is returning to Mexico.
"The TouchPad goes down under"
Oh the irony = /
That's great, but where is the Pre3? You know, the phone they announced almost 6 MONTHS AGO, and the phone that they bragged about how well it paired and worked with the TP?
By the time it actually comes out it will be so out dated that they might as well skip it and start talking about the Pre4 and how great and wonderful it will be!
HP is killing themselves with all these slow releases, they are behind and will never catch-up unless they do some serious soul searching on how they release products.
"the phone they announced almost 6 MONTHS AGO"
You mean the phone where they already told you 6 months ago that it will be out in summer?
It's not late before summer is over.
HPalm makes announcements and people whine that they wait until the device is ready for launch.
HPalm waits until last second and people whine they should announce already.
I agree HP is killing themselves.
They need to release a slate phone. I hate going from landscape mode back into portrait just to type something really quick.
They are also disregarding the current sprint pre owners by not announcing any incentives to stick with webos.
If HP says something like "For those of you that have a sprint pre minus if you switch to the verizon or AT&T pre 3 (or hopefully slate phone) we will give you the phone for free" I would consider switching despite the fact I would lose money in the 2 year contract.
I don't know if people are noticing that more and more sprint webos users are switching to android. HP should realize this and should realize that the same will be true for Verizon and AT&T users without a new phone soon.
Glad they are releasing in other areas but this really should have come with a Pre 3 release somewhere. I just dont get it. Initially i was all against them licensing out webOS but now, i sure hope they do. They arent deserving of the OS
DD007 quoted - "Exchanging the Pre2 was not an option?"
"I bring it to the store and get another one."
I'm in Australia, the store is 10,000 miles away in the US. Not so easy to take it to the store.
i would be pissed too. what a way to gain consumer confidence. thats one of the reasons, among many, for not buying a pre 2 and frankenpre it to sprint....
I was convinced that I don't need or want a tablet, but now that I see this news that it's available here, I find myself strangely swayed...
Sweet. I have my didgeridoo in one hand, and I'm holding onto a kangaroo's tail with my other hand, and ready to swipe away at webOS with...
ah, dammit!
Pretty please may I buy an app with my Australian credit card now? Please?