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The biggest disappointment for me with the loss of the gesture area on the TouchPad (lame name) is that is corresponds with a loss of ELEGANCE.
WebOS as compared to Android and iOS is ELEGANT, and the reason it is elegant is in the most part due to gestures (and cards). It makes it very easy to interface with the OS and do simple things without having to tap, tap, tap.
A while back I had to get on the net and I grabbed my wife's iTouch. I didn't realize how much gestures made interfacing with my Pre so much better until the moment I tried to browse the web on her iTouch. I hated using it and realized how great gestures were and how they made my experience so much better (key differentiator). The TouchPad lost this KEY DIFFERENTIATOR! ...and it was by choice!
If Leo and HP want to be "as cool as Apple" they need to provide differentiation. Instead, we took a step backwards and what we got was an iPad that runs WebOS and can send a webpage to a Pre!
I can't express in words how dissapointed I am to see the gesture area eliminated on the TouchPad, so much so that I don't think I will buy one. But the disappointment is not just personal dissapointment, it's dissapointment with HP. If they really wanted to go up against the iPad, they need things like gestures to differentiate! When the layperson is given the choice between an iPad or a TouchPad, 9 out of 10 times I'm confident they'll choose an iPad because the TouchPad lost a key piece of its elegant interface.
The reason the iPhone was such a "revolutionary" product is becasue it improved the interface. It was basically and elegant PalmOS interface inside a nice, shiny case.
The reason the Pre was "better" than the iPhone in my opinion, was it took the iPhone's elegant interface and made it more elegant and easier to navigate with gestures (and cards).
They lost a major part of the elegance by eliminating gestures on the TouchPad (ugh, every time I type that name I cringe a little - I expected better from HP).
Did they even ask any dedicated WebOS users what they think before introducing this? Did they have focus groups?
What a dissappiontment.
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