Two Giants to make game-changing announcements next week: HP and Nokia.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Two Giants to make game-changing announcements next week: HP and Nokia.

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest IT company, and Nokia, the biggest phone manufacturer, are both expected to make game-changing announcements next week. HP will be first, with the announcement of its new WebOS-based tablets (and, perhaps, phones) on Wednesday February 9. The Nokia announcement is more speculative, because all we really know is that new boss Stephen Elop will be giving a speech to investors in London on Friday February 11.

We're on much firmer ground with HP's announcement, which is rumoured to include two PalmPad tablets code-named Opal (7-inch screen) and Topaz (10-inch), as leaked last month.

These will run WebOS 2.0 or later, from HP's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, and are expected to include wireless charging like the Palm Pre’s Touchstone dock. They should also include HP's Beats (aka Dr Dre) audio. Unlike Apple's current products, they will do real multitasking and support Adobe Flash, which will make them more competitive with RIM's PlayBook.

Related post: It is a tablet and a smartphone