One reason why so many are out to make the most of the drastically reduced price tag of the TouchPad, in spite of HP getting out of the tablet business, is the likely scenario of running the tablet on Android. Work is on in that direction and there already seems headway has been made. One lucky customer already seems to be in possession of a TouchPad running Android. He had ordered one from Best Buy and when it arrived, the TouchPad was seen running Android instead of WebOS. The version shown is Android 2.2 Froyo, though it’s too early to say for sure if it wasn’t faked.
In any case, what is more intriguing is the Qualcomm connection in the whole thing. Sure the TouchPad runs on a Qualcomm processor, but it seems they also used the advantage to make the HP tablet to run Android. The Qualcomm Innovations Center or QuIC logo appeared at one point during the booting process which also showed Ubuntu in the flash screen. However, it’s a mystery as to why QuIC would get into this in the first place.
The TouchPad runs 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and one possible reason to explain the above is that someone might have been testing the TouchPad’s performance in an Android environment instead of WebOS. The unit got shipped without having reverted back to WebOS, which in turn was bought by the person $149. The person is willing to sell off the unit to anyone who is willing to see the sourcecode, though for a price of $700.
via androidcentral
Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email