Consumer electronics maker HP unveiled on Wednesday three new products that the company said were designed to directly compete with tech giant Apple's leading gadget offerings.

HP said that its new line of webOS-based products were intended to challenge Apple's current dominance in the mobile gadget market, specifically its Touchpad, which is the firm's answer to the now-ubiquitous iPad, and the new smartphone Pre 3, obviously to be pitted against the hugely-popular iPhone.

Jon Rubinstein, HP's senior vice president and general manager for its Palm Global Business Unit, said that the introduction of the new products is the company's way of "embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available."

A former employee of Apple and was directly involve in developing the iPod and its iterations, Rubinstein also stressed that "the flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world."

HP expressed confidence that its new TouchPad should pose significant challenge to iPad, which the company said has been engineered as both a stand-alone and a companion gadget for a webOS phone. The iPad-like tablet will run in Palm's webOS, acquired by HP in April 2010 for $1.2 billion, and should be able to utilise thousands of apps that the platform can host.

Although the gadget's definite price tag and date have yet to be determined, the company said that it plans to launch the TouchPad by summer.

Also, HP has introduced its webOS smartphone Pre 3 that boasts of a wide-enough touchscreen and a powerful 1.4GHz processor, with the gadget's further navigation aided by a sliding keyboard.

The new iPhone competition, according to HP, should be favoured by business-inclined users for its sleek and slim design, which was ably complemented by the gadget's high-capacity battery that can provide sufficient juice for an active 24-hour usage.

Completing the new product line is the Veer, which HP said should command attention for its small dimension and heft, coming only at 103 grams, but powerful and functional enough, with its 800 MHz processor and a host of features that largely duplicate its near-clone Pre 3, though downscaled a bit by the phone's designer.