TouchPad poorly rated leader compared to earlier Mac OS X

HP's first webOS tablet, the TouchPad, was formally launched on the US market earlier this month, but the media’s evaluation of it is not very good. After the trials, media editors said that the TouchPad hardware performance is flat, the software is running slowly, and third-party applications are relatively scarce, and it is difficult to compete with the iPad and even the Android tablet.

In response to these negative evaluations, Jon Rubenstein, senior vice president of HP and general manager of Palm's global business, sent an internal e-mail to the staff recently, saying that many of the current shortcomings of the TouchPad will be quickly resolved through an online system upgrade. The former Apple executive who once participated in the development of the first generation of iPods said at the end of the e-mail that Apple's Mac OS X faced a similar negative evaluation 10 years ago, but this company's current status is almost impossible to match.

The following is the full text of the message disclosed by the media:

Teams,

Today we brought the HP TouchPad and webOS 3.0 systems to the world. Considering that we began to prepare this product seriously, but for a year, we achieved extraordinary achievements. Today also marks the beginning of a new era for HP. Our vision in the mobile Internet space - an ecosystem of seamlessly interconnected services, applications, and webOS devices - begins to be truly implemented.

If you have read the recent TouchPad review, I believe you have seen that the industry has understood HP's vision and sees the potential of webOS as we do. Well-known columnist David Pogue of the New York Times said "I see great signs from this product."

You should also see that the testers accurately pointed out what we need to improve in the webOS experience. The good news is that most of the issues they point out are our known issues and will soon be resolved through OTA Online Update and App Catalog Online Store Update. However, we still need to work hard to bring the webOS platform to the level we believe it can achieve. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Just yesterday, Richard Kerris, head of global developer relations at webOS, reminded me that there was a product launched 10 years ago that got the following evaluation in the initial evaluation:

"The overall response to this software is slow."

"Almost no high-quality software is available, and I am afraid it will be difficult to persist for a long time."

"This stuff has no meaning at all."

It's hard to believe that these reviews describe Mac OS X, a platform that changes the vision of Silicon Valley in ways that no one can imagine.

The similarities in our situation are obvious, but there are also huge differences. Like David Pogue, our consumers saw the potential of webOS as a great platform. Like me, they have felt your hard work and passion, and HP's strong support for webOS will make this potential a reality.

Thank you, unsung hero!