We have heard rumors of HP’s entry into the tablet market, with a slew of devices, covering Microsoft, Android and its own WebOS platforms, in a bid to unseat the iPad from the tablet king crown. But to date, the release schedules have been rather sketchy.

Now for the first time, we’re  hearing from several trusted sources that it’ll be calendar Q1 2011. We’re told Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley mentioned the date during an all-hands employee meeting yesterday, and that the project is indeed known internally as “Hurricane.”

This might be some good news for the beleaguered company, and maybe the VP used it as a moral booster for the employees, after their CEO Mark Hurd resigned amid allegations of “sexual misconduct”. or this might be a targeted leak to achieve the same effect in the wider media, to take attention away from the scandals at the top.(we’ll let you decide on that).

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