Hewlett Packard, hoping to tap into a market dominated by Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet, announced Thursday that the Wi-Fi version of HP TouchPad will be available next month.

The tablet will sell for $499.99 and $599.99 at either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage, respectively, Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard said.

HP's first webOS tablet will be available in the United States on July 1. The tablet will be available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July, with availability scheduled to follow later this year in Italy and Spain, as well as in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore. Preorders in North America and Europe will begin June 19.

Personal-computer makers are rushing into the tablet market as more consumers are buying the smaller, touchscreen devices, and sales of traditional PCs have been softening. Research firm International Data Corporation said last week it expects worldwide shipments of desktops and laptops t o grow by just 4.2 percent in 2011, down from its February forecast of 7.1 percent.

Desktop computers and laptops continue to outsell tablets. Last year, nearly 18 million tablets were shipped, with Apple's iPad cornering nearly 83 percent of the market. More than 346 million personal computers were shipped in 2010, with Hewlett Packard grabbing 18.5 percent of the market.

IDC said last month it expects that there will be 50 million tablet shipments in 2011, with Apple maintaining 70 percent to 80 percent of the tablet market. Apple sold 4.69 million iPads in the first quarter of 2011, for a total of about 20 million since the April 2010 debut, and outselling all the other tablets combined.

Apple was expected to face more competition this year with the release of Research in Motion's PlayBook, Samsung Electronics Inc.'s Galaxy Tab and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.'s Xoom, however, these products barely made a dent in the market.

TouchPad vs. iPad

Hewlett Packard, the world's largest PC maker, said, "What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS," said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. "The platform's unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP's scale can do with webOS."

Hewlett Packard said that with webOS, HP TouchPad users have a next-level multitasking experience, access to the web, premium audio playback with stereo speakers and Beats Audio technology, the ability to find information on the device or in the cloud using the Just Type feature, integrated access to their information with HP Synergy, and HP's exclusive Touch to Share capability for sharing web addresses between HP TouchPad and compatible webOS phones.

The HP TouchPad features a 9.7-inch capacitive touch screen, a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 16 GB or 32 GB storage, a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls but no rear-facing camera. In addition to the capabilities of WebOS, the TouchPad also has HP's touch-to-share technology, which allows you to share information between WebOS devices simply by touching them together.

Optional accessories for HP TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad Wireless Keyboard and the HP TouchPad Case (sold separately).

In contrast, the iPad2, which was released by Apple in March, features a 9.7-inch touch screen, Apple-A5 dual core processor (2 times faster than iPad's processor), Imagination's SGX543 dual core graphics technology, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage, front facing VGA video camera and a 0.7 megapixel still camera at the back, HDMI Support, and an iOS 4.3.3 operating system.

Specs.-wise, the TouchPad could wrestle with the iPad. However, counting the previous failed launches of iPads competitors, the reputation of the WebOS in the market, and the foundation already built by Apple's tablets, it would appear that the iPad would continue to fend off its competition.

HP's webOS have failed to gain following in the Google Android-dominated smartphone market. So it remains to be seen whet the TouchPad's webOS would have the cutting edge over Apple's iOS.

The biggest hurdle though for the TouchPad is the applications. More than available 90,000 applications optimized for the iPad that can be downloaded from the App Store, in addition to the more than 200,000 iPhone apps that can also work for the Apple tablet. In contrast, HP only boasts of downloadable movies and TV shows from the HP MovieStore and a few thousand apps for HP webOS.

HP said in its site that among the apps in-store is Angry Birds, Facebook, Time and last.fm. and said it's adding tons of features for app developers, "to bring you more amazing experiences." It said that users will enjoy "apps for social networking, health and fitness, productivity, finance, 3D games - you name it."

Can the TouchPad make waves in the tablet market? Or would it only barely make ripples like the other iPad wannabes? We'll find out this July.