An insider at HP is revealing that a webOS tablet under the code name Hurricane could be released the third quarter of this year by Palm’s new owner, HP.

The HP Slate, a Windows 7-based tablet that was supposed to become the new iPad killer, is apparently being scrapped due to poor reviews.

“It is a really interesting device, but runs as slow as a turtle,” says Los Angeles industry analyst Paul Mueller about the Slate. “I think they could have had something with a faster processor, but that would have led to less battery life than the Slate already had.” Like us, Mr. Mueller looks forward to the HP Hurricane. “If rumors of this tablet are true, this can be a killer device–webOS is an outstanding operating system for a tablet.”

The rumored HP webOS-based tablet will presumably feature better hardware than the Slate.  HP’s acquisition of Palm has yet to be finalized and still has a few months to go; HP said the deal should be done by July 31st. So whether HP can ink the Palm deal and come to market with a brand new tablet with a brand new OS, remains to be seen.

Published on May 10, 2010