HP officially announced their new tablet PC today – the TouchPad.

The announcement has been met with mixed reviews. Critics have cited everything from the length of the announcement (it’s nearly 2 hours) to the lack of current app support.

Fans of the tablet point out that it has a chance of competing with the iPad due to its increased hardware specs, HPs dominance in shelf-space throughout the world, and other similar factors.

In my opinion, the TouchPad is a huge leap forward for HP. It seems to provide a slick, friendly user interface, and seems to have a stable of interesting applications – even if HP needs to invest in developing more applications in order to compete with iPad (or iPad2)

However, one mistake that could be very costly is the name itself. As Rob Enderle pointed out, TouchPad refers to a whole other class of product, and Googling “Touchpad” brings up a hodge-podge of mouse-substitutes, tablet PCs, and iPhone applications. This is a marketing nightmare.

I look forward to seeing the tablet in the summer… I’ll withhold final judgement until then.

The video of the presentation: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-full-video-of-hps-touchpad-intro-this-morning-2011-2

Rob Enderle’s article: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hp-touchpad-game-changer-or-missed-opportunity/