Touchpad

A touchpad /ˈtʌtʃpæd/ or trackpad /ˈtrækpæd/ is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is outputted to the screen. Touchpads are a common feature of laptop computers, and are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk space is scarce. Because they vary in size, they can also be found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Wireless touchpads are also available as detached accessories.

Operation and function

Touchpads operate in one of several ways, including capacitive sensing and resistive touchscreen. The most common technology used as of 2010 entails sensing the capacitive virtual ground effect of a finger, or the capacitance between sensors. Capacitance-based touchpads will not sense the tip of a pencil or other similar implement. Gloved fingers may also be problematic.

While touchpads, like touchscreens, are able to sense absolute position, resolution is limited by their size. For common use as a pointer device, the dragging motion of a finger is translated into a finer, relative motion of the cursor on the output to the display on the operating system, analogous to the handling of a mouse that is lifted and put back on a surface. Hardware buttons equivalent to a standard mouse's left and right buttons are positioned below, above, or beside the touchpad.

HP TouchPad

The HP TouchPad is a tablet computer that was developed and designed by Hewlett-Packard. The HP TouchPad was launched on July 1, 2011, in the United States; July 15 in Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany; and August 15 in Australia.

On August 18, 2011, 49 days after the TouchPad was launched in the United States, HP announced that it would discontinue all current devices running webOS. Remaining TouchPad stock received substantial price reductions, and quickly sold out.

History

The HP TouchPad was announced on February 9, 2011, at the webOS "Think Beyond" event held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco alongside the HP Veer and HP Pre 3.

Initial sales of the device sold 25,000 of 270,000 units, and did not meet HP's expectations, rapidly becoming overshadowed by the launch of the iPad 2 in March. On August 16, 2011, it was reported that Best Buy refused to pay HP for any more TouchPad stock. In Europe, the TouchPad was estimated to have sold 12,000 in its first month of release. In Australia, Harvey Norman who was the exclusive retailer sold about 1,200 units in the four days it was on sale. Industry commentators suggested that the lack of apps for the platform and lackluster advertising was hindering sales. On August 18, HP announced that it would discontinue all webOS devices. HP CTO Shane Robison noted that the TouchPad "was half a generation or a generation behind the iPad and so that wasn't going to drive volume." Some years later, a member of the development team described the device as being made from "cast-off reject iPad parts."