HP and AT&T today announced that the brand new Veer 4G smartphone would be available from 15th May for $99 on a 2 year contract. The Veer is the first of three new devices coming from HP Palm, the others being the TouchPad and the Pre 3.
Running WebOS 2.1, the Veer is a tiny smartphone “the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards” weighing only 3.6 oz, but still sporting a slide-out keyboard, as you can seen from the picture. Available in both black and white, it’s intended to replace the Pixi in the smartphone range. Given the tiny size I’ll be interested to see one in the flesh, as it were.
I’m not completely au fait with all the 4G terminology but it’s “4G speeds delivered by HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul” so I assume that it’s not a pure 4G phone with LTE or WiMax.
The Palm name is all but gone but it’s good to see that they’re still in the game, albeit now as an independent business unit within HP. With Android and iOS dominating the smartphone race, the first and second positions are pretty much locked in. Third place is wide open with RIM, Microsoft, Nokia and HP all in the running. This starts HP’s chase as they’re definitely coming from behind according to some of the latest figures from Nielson, which gives Palm only about 3% market share.