HP’s TouchPad will debut 1 July for $500

(Reuters): Hewlett Packard Co. will begin selling its Touchpad on 1 July in the United States for $499.99, debuting the first tablet computer powered by Palm’s operating software.

Jumping into the tablet computer craze triggered by Apple Inc’s iPad, HP said on Thursday it would start taking orders on 19 June in North America and Europe.

The Wi-Fi version of the gadget hits store shelves 1 July in the United States, followed by Britain, Ireland, France and Germany a few days after.

Canada gets the tablet, run on Palm’s WebOS operating system, in mid-July, followed by Italy, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore later in 2011.

HP bought Palm last summer for $1.2 billion, hoping to combine its WebOS software with a plethora of devices from smartphones to printers, gambling that there is room for yet another mobile software platform.

HP faces an uphill battle in a mobile market already dominated by Apple and devices based on Google Inc’s Android.