14 DAY TRIAL // HP may not have begun to sell the TouchPad yet, or the several TouchPads, but it looks like some sample models have already been completed and sent to certain parties, free of charge.
Gifts do sometimes work towards better relations on the IT industry, as they do everywhere else, but a product sent to another free of charge can qualify as other things besides this.
In this case, the way HP sent some of its 9.7-inch TouchPad tablets to WebOS-compatible software makers is not as much a way of giving gifts as it is a means to encourage making of WebOS apps.
The TouchPad may have the advantage of uniqueness because of its operating system, but it won't be able to thrive in absence of content.
As such, a fair number of apps will have to be created in order for users to truly crave this item, although it will take a long time for the number to even get close to the content available to the Apple iPad.
Then again, Android apps don't have that big a head start compared to WebOS ones, so Android slates, at least, should be a manageable opponent in the near term.
Skype and Amazon Kindle are two of the more relevant programs that should be WebOS compatible by the time TouchPad, and the other future TouchPads, sell.
Speaking in plurals, the world-leading PC supplier was recently implied to have made plans for seven distinct slates.
The variety is yet another reason for why HP seeks to get thousands of WebOS apps out as soon as possible.
The official introduction of the first mobile electronic device from the slate line has already been made, but availability will only be reached next month (July, 2011), and even then only in some parts of the world. True widespread adoption should be possible later this year, when more countries get their own shipments.