科技英语新闻:HP TouchPad to hit U.S. stores on July 1

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) on Thursday announced that its tablet computer, HP TouchPad, will go on sale in the United States on July 1.

Two versions of HP TouchPad, with the option of either 16 gigabytes or 32 gigabytes of internal storage, and both only with Wi-Fi connection, will be available in the United States for 499. 99 U.S. dollars and 599.99 dollars respectively, the company said in a statement.

The product will hit stores in Britain, Ireland, France and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July, with availability scheduled to follow later this year in Italy, Spain, Australia, China's Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore.

Preorders in North America and Europe will begin on June 19, HP said.

HP did not release the price details when it introduced TouchPad on Feb. 9. The black device, with a 9.7-inch touch screen, runs webOS operating system, a mobile platform developed by Palm, a smartphone maker acquired by HP last April for 1.8 billion dollars.