Hewlett Packard Co, the world's largest PC manufacturer in terms of shipments, is finally ready to step into the tablet world, with the announcement of its first slate running on its latest WebOS operating system.

The US corporate and consumer electronics giant announced the HP TouchPad at an event in Shanghai yesterday.

The tablet is expected to hit the Chinese market later this year, the company announced without revealing detailed pricing or availability.

HP also announced two other WebOS-based smartphones at the event. The company, late to enter the tablet market compared to Apple running on its iOS platform and other manufactures on the Android system, showed confidence in the TouchPad's market potential.

"We are coming into a market that is still very young, very immature, with huge growth potential. There is still a huge amount of market opportunities for anybody in the segment," said Phil McKinney, chief technology officer for Personal Systems Group at HP.

McKinney believes that HP is able to make the WebOS No.1 in the market, as HP's stronger market presence and larger retail base in the PC field compared to Apple could help the company win over Apple.

The WebOS software was initially developed by California-based smartphone manufacturer Palm Inc, which was acquired by HP early last year.

Market watchers also showed optimism on the market prospects of HP's foraying into tablets through WebOS.

"Synergy is a main feature of the Linux-based WebOS platform, which may make HP's TouchPad different from other products in the market," said Ji Chendong, a consultant with market research firm Frost & Sullivan in Shanghai.

With the WebOS system, users could touch phones enabling WebOS to the TouchPad to share content.

The synergy capacity of the WebOS platform connecting smartphones and tablets could generate a good application experience and boost user loyalty to urge them to use smartphones as well as tablets, said Sun Peilin, an industry analyst with Beijing-based market research firm Analysys International.

But Frost & Sullivan's Ji pointed out that tablets based on the open-source Android platform are expected to gain huge momentum, while Apple's iPad is estimated to remain dominant in the market in the near future.

"The tablet may also be a growth engine for HP, particularly in China, as the traditional PC world is becoming increasingly mature," Ji said.

HP's market share in China shrank to 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter from 9.2 percent in the third quarter, ranking the fourth behind Lenovo, Acer and Dell, according to figures released Friday by research firm IDC.

HP also reported Tuesday a 16 percent jump in net profit in its fiscal first-quarter, while allaying market sentiment with a weak outlook for the current quarter, partly impacted by a weaker consumer market, according to Dow Jones.