LOS ANGELES, USA: Hewlett Packard Co will begin selling its TouchPad on July 1 in the United States for $499.99, debuting the first tablet computer powered by Palm's operating software.
The Wi-Fi version of the gadget hits store shelves July 1 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.