HP may be ready to throw in the towel with a device that was meant to be an iPad killer but failed to live up to the hype, and with Microsoft trying to lure Web OS developers to Windows Phone 7, Web OS and the TouchPad look doomed.
Well, that is unless you are a cowboy developer and see an opportunity where HP doesn’t. A new development programme has started under the name of Touchdrod; a team of developers who are committed to porting Android to the presumed dead device, which is now selling for under £100(Update: UK stock seems to have sold out in minutes).
There is no reason for this not to happen as the TouchPad’s processor was developed by a company who have made processors for many different Android devices.
So what would we be looking at? Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb? Well we don’t know, but Ice Cream Sandwich will need to be on the menu at some point once it is released. We’ve already heard rumours of a FroYo port working on the TouchPad, and some have said that Android Gingerbread may be working on HP TouchPads before the end of the week.
This could be a way of getting an extremely capable ‘Android’ tablet at a very, very good price and even until Android is available the WebOS device is more than able to meet most normal needs. For the time being at least.
If this is something that you would like to happen heat over to the TouchDroid website and show your support.