Digitimes, ever eavesdropping on the water cooler talk at big manufacturers, reports that HP’s webOS-powered TouchPad may be launched as soon as April, two months earlier than the only extant previous estimate. Volume is predicted at 4-5 million units, which is in line with other big names in the tablet field.

The earlier the better, HP, but with the Xoom and Galaxy Tab 10.1 (among others) in the running as well, it could be a tough debut. I get the feeling someone’s going to end up with a lot of units in warehouses.