October 16th, 2008
Report: HP working on touchscreen laptop; new netbook
The company behind the Touchsmart all-in-one desktops is planning to release a notebook PC with a touchscreen display before the end of the year, according to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required). HP has hired Frog Design–the company behind the HP Touchsmart IQ500 and IQ800–to design the hardware while an internal team is refining the touch-enabled user interface that runs on top of Microsoft Windows. (This seems to be the same group that prompted Business Week to suggest earlier this year that HP was developing its own operating system.) HP confirmed that the company is working on a family of touchscreen devices, but gave no details.
The Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro announced on Tuesday have an updated version of the company’s multi-touch technology, but it only works with the glass touchpad. Apple’s notebooks do not have touchscreen displays. Earlier this week the DigiTimes site reported that Asus was planning to release touchscreen versions of its Eee PC netbook in the second quarter of 2009. HP is also expected to release a new netbook before the end of the year, according got the same WSJ story, but it will use a standard display. HP’s current netbook, the Mini-Note 2133, uses a Via C7-M processor, but most competitors now use Intel Atom chips.
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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