One of my biggest pet peeves with the mobile industry is when a company announces a hot, new product, then tells us that said product won't ship for another six months or more. HP has fallen victim to this practice in the past, but their new CEO has promised that it won't be happening again. Speaking with the BBC, HP CEO Leo Apotheker said that "when HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship." This includes whatever new products that will be announced on February 9th, which Apotheker says will ship a "few weeks" later. In addition to shipping sooner, those new devices will have a new name featuring the HP brand. All of this, Apotheker hopes, will make the public "say 'this is as cool as HP,' not 'this is as cool as Apple.'"

The February 9th event won't be the end of the CEO's big plans for HP, though. He explained that he has a "secret answer" that will show a "vision of what HP is capable of in the future" that will be revealed on March 14th. No word on exactly what Apotheker has planned, but it sounds like something that's going to tie several of HP's products together.

While I've been excited about HP's new products (especially the tablets) for some time now, I've had my concerns about the company taking too long to push out the Topaz and whatever else they have in store for Feb. 9th. Now that we may get to play with a webOS tablet by the time March rolls around, though, my confidence in the company is returning. I just hope that HP has some awesome smartphones planned for next month to tag along with the Topaz. The Mansion would do nicely, don't you think?

Via Engadget, BBC