7-inch HP Opal tablet may launch in August

Back in January we first heard some leaked tidbits about HP’s plans in the tablet space. And what we heard back then was that HP was working on two webOS-powered tablets. In the meantime, of course, one of those turned out to be the TouchPad, previously known by its codename Topaz.

Yet alongside the Topaz HP was reportedly working on the Opal, a 7-inch tablet with 1024×768 resolution and dimensions close to those of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab (also a 7-inch device).

While HP has managed to stay silent on the matter, today new information comes to confirm the Opal’s existence. Taiwan Economic News reports that, according to a subcontractor, Inventec Corp., a major Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of computers, will make tablets for HP. Orders for the TouchPad are expected to be in the 400,000-450,000 per month range, which is nothing spectacular.

What’s more interesting though is that according to the same source HP will launch a 7-inch tablet in August.

Now since HP is Inventec’s largest buyer of notebooks, the above certainly seems very plausible. After all, it wouldn’t be something out of the ordinary if HP chose one of its trusted suppliers from another industry (notebooks) to supply its tablets as well. Also, since the TouchPad turned out to be real, we have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information we got in January regarding the 7-inch tablet with the codename Opal.

With each month that goes by, the tablet market is getting more and more crowded. Let’s see if HP really has another offering up its sleeves, and how well it will do if it’s launched.

If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:

• HP / Palm tablets detailed, one of them may be called HP Touchpad
• HP to launch two Palm WebOS tablets this year, one of them will be out in September
• HP Pre 3 apparently delayed ’til late July in the UK
• HP TouchPad may launch on June 12
• HP TouchPad passes FCC, will launch soon

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