Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, one of the world's leading vendors of consumer computer systems, has announced today the expansion of its TouchSmart family of desktop computer systems with the introduction of two new models, the TouchSmart 300 and TouchSmart 600, offering a choice for a 20-inch or a 23-inch diagonal display, respectively. In addition, the company has also announced the debut of its own fully interactive, 42-inch diagonal, high-definition (HD) digital signage touch display, the HP LD4200tm, along with the new TouchSmart 9100, an all-in-one, multitouch-enabled business PC.

“Since the launch of the first TouchSmart PC nearly three years ago, we’ve worked closely with a growing number of software companies and independent vendors to develop built-for-touch applications that give consumers and businesses rich interactive multimedia experiences,” said James Mouton, senior vice president and general manager, Desktop Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. “These collaborations have helped to make HP touch computing the most advanced touch experience in the market today.”

HP gave little info on the technical specifications of its new TouchSmart 300 and TouchSmart 600 all-in-one PCs, but it did mention a series of applications that will be enabled on the new systems. According to the company, users will be able to enjoy a line of exclusive built-for-touch applications, including, Hulu Desktop, a Netflix application, Twitter, Rhapsody-enabled HP Music Store, Pandora Internet radio, TouchSmart RecipeBox, TouchSmart Live TV, TouchSmart Canvas, TouchSmart Link. In addition, all of these applications will be optimized to work with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, which will be at the base of the two systems.

The business-focused TouchSmart 9100 has been designed to provide users with the performance of a powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 8GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, with an optional 64GB solid state drive. The system offers a choice for upgrading the NVIDIA GeForce G200 integrated graphics solution with the NVIDIA GeForce GT230 discrete graphics chip, via the Mobile Express Module (MXM) graphics slot.

HP's new LD4200tm comes with a large 42-inch diagonal, in a sleek black enclosure, offering a Full HD screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and an ultra-wide 178 x 178 degree viewing angle. The solution is designed to run 24/7 with a low power usage.

As regards pricing and availability, the new HP TouchSmart 300 and TouchSmart 600 start at US$899 and US$1,049 and will be available on November 1 and October 22, respectively. The TouchSmart 9100 will be available in December for a starting price of US$1,299, while the 42-inch widescreen LCD monitor starts at US$2,799 and is due out in December.