Best Buy is reportedly unhappy with HP after having sold just 25,000 of the PC maker's TouchPad tablets and is unwilling to pay for the more than 240,000 unsold units, according to a new report.
well, then, they're just not very good salesmen, are they?
well, then, they're just not very good salesmen, are they?
Actually, they are probably good salesmen.
They are probably pushing the iPad which has higher consumer visibility, higher average sales price, higher margins, higher customer satisfaction ratings, lower failure rate, lower return rate and probably some ancillary behavior like higher accessory purchases (the latter is where retailers often make fatter profits).
Who cares about best buy. I am more interested in how many amazon sold. Best buy and brick and mortar electronic stores are on the way out. Apple store is kind of an exception because it's a store, an experience center (which will stick around and maybe even grow in my opinio. For apple and non apple alike) and a tech support center.
When people go to buy stuff other than food they go online, and I think that is where the key lies. If amazon sales are as dismal I doubt we will see touchpad 2. Perhaps a corporate only, but not consumer.
Further proof that the iPad has a 95% marketshare of the tablet market, not the 60-70% figure that Wall Street Journal and others have been tossing around.
Who cares how bad the sales of HP WebOS tablets are going. Bet the barn by integrating WebOS to your PC desktops and laptops and make that grand ecosystem you were talking about!
They will come...... NOT!!!
Build half-a$$ hardware, half-baked software and you get consumers that know better than to buy your product.
Why haven't any of you Apple competitors figured it out yet?
Has anyone considered that Apple is going to bankrupt the "old line" technology companies? This is pretty much like the cold war.
Everyone is killing themselves to make an "iPad killer" and/or an "iPhone killer" and/or a "MacBook Air killer" and/or a "MacBook Pro killer". And they're failing. Miserably.
Google just spent more than its annual profits on MMI, just to compete with Apple so they can *give* away Android. HP is wasting time trying to sell TouchPads and hasn't managed to make either a decent Palm-based phone or tablet. Microsoft is creating a Windows 8 that may well abandon their existing Windows 7 base due to its radically different, touch-optimized UI.
The JooJoo. The Notion Ink Adam. Intel's Ultrabook initiative. Intel's Atom initiative. nVidia's Tegra. All promised to set the world on fire, but fizzled like a bad cigarette lighter.
Meanwhile, Apple has enough money to sit back and do nothing until all of these have spent themselves into oblivion.
If Steve Jobs can do all this, having literally brought Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy, while being monstrously ill, can you imagine what he would have accomplished if he were well? Even if Apple implodes tomorrow, every CEO of every Fortune 500...no, every Wilshire 5000 company should resign in shame and embarrassment.
Who cares how bad the sales of HP WebOS tablets are going. Bet the barn by integrating WebOS to your PC desktops and laptops and make that grand ecosystem you were talking about!
They will come...... NOT!!!
Build half-a$$ hardware, half-baked software and you get consumers that know better than to buy your product.
Why haven't any of you Apple competitors figured it out yet?
Then why do people still buy Dell computers, they are half-rate hardware with half-baked software and they are still pushing out more Desktops than Apple can sell iMacs and Mac Minis, and HP is still selling more laptops than Apple.
And we all know Apple laptops are at the top of the game as far as industrial design, and the software, OS X Lion and iLife, it's the best on the market.
The reason? You can get an HP/Dell laptop for $299 or $399 when Apple starts at $999 for the bare-bones tiny MacBook Air, and goes up to $2700 for their 17" offerings.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that. If Apple really wanted to do the volume selling of laptops, they need to get their prices more in line with the rest of the market. This has always been the reason people turn to PCs, simply because they cannot afford the Mac alternative...the iPads and iPhones can be easily got for the sub-$500 range, that is why they sell like hotcakes.
Has anyone considered that Apple is going to bankrupt the "old line" technology companies? This is pretty much like the cold war.
Everyone is killing themselves to make an "iPad killer" and/or an "iPhone killer" and/or a "MacBook Air killer" and/or a "MacBook Pro killer". And they're failing. Miserably.
Google just spent more than its annual profits on MMI, just to compete with Apple so they can *give* away Android. HP is wasting time trying to sell TouchPads and hasn't managed to make either a decent Palm-based phone or tablet. Microsoft is creating a Windows 8 that may well abandon their existing Windows 7 base due to its radically different, touch-optimized UI.
The JooJoo. The Notion Ink Adam. Intel's Ultrabook initiative. Intel's Atom initiative. nVidia's Tegra. All promised to set the world on fire, but fizzled like a bad cigarette lighter.
Meanwhile, Apple has enough money to sit back and do nothing until all of these have spent themselves into oblivion.
If Steve Jobs can do all this, having literally brought Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy, while being monstrously ill, can you imagine what he would have accomplished if he were well? Even if Apple implodes tomorrow, every CEO of every Fortune 500...no, every Wilshire 5000 company should resign in shame and embarrassment.
Absolute genius.
Somewhere along the line someone will become a true full competitor to Apple when it comes to quality...Market share they are no where near the kind, but profits they are.
I am never a fan of one company becoming king, and I hope when all this sue, counter-sue, buy, sell, alter, drop, change, adopt, advance sh!t is done we end up with a lot of quality, at least 3 major OS's in the mobile realm (iOS obviously, a more mature Android, and probably WP7 though it's so boring despite being good looking) the same 2 in computing (Windows and Mac) and a hell of a lot of advanced tech for us consumers.
Anyone wishing for the death of any competitor is retarded. Which unfortunately a lot of cult-like iPhanboys seem to want. Fandroids as well, don't get me wrong, but Apple centric sites seem to be more than happy to wish death to companies than Android centric sites.
I want a cleaner, smoother, faster, more functional computing future. And these times are the foundation for that future.
People aren't falling for cheap poorly functioning devices anymore, Apple has changed that game...Android OEMs are upping their build quality and things are only going to get better for us all. Recent PCs are beautiful machines (high end ones anyways) and yea.
So thank you Apple for ushering in the future... but I sincerely hope you are not alone at the top.
Then why do people still buy Dell computers, they are half-rate hardware with half-baked software and they are still pushing out more Desktops than Apple can sell iMacs and Mac Minis, and HP is still selling more laptops than Apple.
And we all know Apple laptops are at the top of the game as far as industrial design, and the software, OS X Lion and iLife, it's the best on the market.
The reason? You can get an HP/Dell laptop for $299 or $399 when Apple starts at $999 for the bare-bones tiny MacBook Air, and goes up to $2700 for their 17" offerings.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that. If Apple really wanted to do the volume selling of laptops, they need to get their prices more in line with the rest of the market. This has always been the reason people turn to PCs, simply because they cannot afford the Mac alternative...the iPads and iPhones can be easily got for the sub-$500 range, that is why they sell like hotcakes.
Well I'd say a good 40% of the Windows PC buyers can't afford or can't see the added value in Apple PCs...probably less but I'm being generous. The other 60+% (people like me) honestly find Windows more appealing.
Using both in my day to day (Mac for work, PC for freelance) it is no contest which is better (opinion of course) and a lot of people have similar feelings.
Your argument is relatively sound but that tidbit sounded eerily like the argument that the only people buying Android devices are people who are too broke/cheap/poor to buy iPhones as if the high end Android devices don't cost just as much as an iPhone.
The weird thing here is that Mac users have much higher customer satisfaction ratings than Windows users. Same with iPhone users vs. their competitors.
It appears that saving money isn't all that gratifying.
Apple doesn't bother competing on price. You can buy a 4GB iRiver MP3 player for $25 whereas the 2GB iPod shuffle goes for $49. And yet Apple has something like 90% of the PMP (Personal Music Player) market. Cost competition alone isn't sufficient, at least when we're talking about Apple.
Google just threw WebOS a lifeline by buying Motorola. all the other Android dependent smartphone OEM's have to start looking for OS alternatives immediately. if HP is smart and begins to license its smartphone WebOS pronto - which is in pretty good shape - it could have a big market impact real fast - 6 months to a year. that might even help prop up WebOS tablet sales a bit too.
let's see if HP has the brains to jump on this unexpected opportunity.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that.
No, it's not that simple. You've seen the following, of course...
"Asustek Computer is hoping to release two Ultrabook models, an 11.6-inch UX21 and 13.3-inch UX31, later this year. While the UX21 will reportedly retail for $1000, the UX31 will cost $1600, a $300 premium on Apple's $1,299 13.3-inch MacBook Air."
This is in line with Intel's Ultrabook initiative, and it shows that Apple's competitor's can't build an Apple-class product at a price less than Apple's. Why? They simply can't compete with Apple's supply chain. Same for all of the people who tried to match Apple's prices on equivalent tablets. (Building a cheap 5" tablet isn't equivalent.)
So... given the above, what makes you think that Apple couldn't leverage its supply chain and compete on the low end if they really wanted to do so?
They don't, of course. It would dilute Apple's brand to built commodity POS plastic boxes, and why chase after nickels and dimes when you can be pulling in the majority of the high-end profits?
One report said that Apple got 90% of the sales of computers costing $1,000 or more. Ninety friction' percent. And it's not an "Apple Tax" when the competition can't build them at that price either...
So... what is wrong with the TouchPad? Why aren't people buying them?
Sales are disappointing because there was never much of a market in the first place.
Your average consumer is unlikely to have done much in the way of trawling tech sites to find the mediocre reviews and make much of an informed choice, they just went out to buy an iPad and not some other iPad clone, be it webos or android.
Also constantly fiddling with the price does nothing to promote regular sales patterns as it just encourages people to hold off buying and try and second guess when the next price drop is coming.
Meanwhile apple can still barely make iPads fast enough to keep up with demand.
Sales are disappointing because there was never much of a market in the first place.
Your average consumer is unlikely to have done much in the way of trawling tech sites to find the mediocre reviews and make much of an informed choice, they just went out to buy an iPad and not some other iPad clone, be it webos or android.
Like I said... there are HP TouchPad commercials on TV all the time.
Let's say someone goes to Best Buy to buy a TouchPad after seeing it on TV. Then they end up choosing a more expensive iPad instead?
I agree, but the competitors are actually pretty nice devices (Galaxy is my favorite non-iPad, but HP seems nice too based on my limited test run). They are all much more responsive than I anticipated.
On the other hand, I really don't see how somebody would pay for something similar to an iPad when you can get the real deal for the same price.
A big problem with the Touchpad is that its future is uncertain. Even if you're like me and think it's kind of cool, no one wants to end up with a product with no software, accessories, or even basic security updates.
Accessories are another huge factor. With all these Droid tablets there's no single form factor to target when designing certain products, like say this.
Like I said... there are HP TouchPad commercials on TV all the time.
Let's say someone goes to Best Buy to buy a TouchPad after seeing it on TV. Then they end up choosing a more expensive iPad instead?
iPad has mass media exposure that other tablets don't get - you see reporters and presenters using them on tv shows all the time so people recognise the product and know the name. TouchPad is close enough to iPad that people may not even recognize it as being a different product.
I'm basing this on experience with the rest of my very non technical family and I wouldn't be overly surprised if a lot of people saw TouchPad adverts and failed to realise it wasn't actually an advert for an iPad... from the few TouchPad adverts I've seen here in the UK they are very similarly styled to the iPad ads, and people may just see a 10" tablet with "Pad" in the name... same thing surely... They then walk into best buy or whereever and ask for "that tablet thing I saw on the tv... the something pad"...
I'm not trying to cast all non tech folks as stupid, but having spent years trying to do tech support / tech education for my extended family there are a lot of people out there who really can't tell the difference - I'm related to at least 5 of them.
Comments
Best Buy is reportedly unhappy with HP after having sold just 25,000 of the PC maker's TouchPad tablets and is unwilling to pay for the more than 240,000 unsold units, according to a new report.
well, then, they're just not very good salesmen, are they?
"Kind of a shame. Its better than Android."
"I would take one of them over an Android tablet though...."
And I can't go 5 minutes without seeing the Russell Brand TouchPad commercials on TV.
So... what is wrong with the TouchPad? Why aren't people buying them?
well, then, they're just not very good salesmen, are they?
Actually, they are probably good salesmen.
They are probably pushing the iPad which has higher consumer visibility, higher average sales price, higher margins, higher customer satisfaction ratings, lower failure rate, lower return rate and probably some ancillary behavior like higher accessory purchases (the latter is where retailers often make fatter profits).
Oh, and way more volume (units sold).
When people go to buy stuff other than food they go online, and I think that is where the key lies. If amazon sales are as dismal I doubt we will see touchpad 2. Perhaps a corporate only, but not consumer.
They will come...... NOT!!!
Build half-a$$ hardware, half-baked software and you get consumers that know better than to buy your product.
Why haven't any of you Apple competitors figured it out yet?
I assume he’s bringing a very large van?
Everyone is killing themselves to make an "iPad killer" and/or an "iPhone killer" and/or a "MacBook Air killer" and/or a "MacBook Pro killer". And they're failing. Miserably.
Google just spent more than its annual profits on MMI, just to compete with Apple so they can *give* away Android. HP is wasting time trying to sell TouchPads and hasn't managed to make either a decent Palm-based phone or tablet. Microsoft is creating a Windows 8 that may well abandon their existing Windows 7 base due to its radically different, touch-optimized UI.
The JooJoo. The Notion Ink Adam. Intel's Ultrabook initiative. Intel's Atom initiative. nVidia's Tegra. All promised to set the world on fire, but fizzled like a bad cigarette lighter.
Meanwhile, Apple has enough money to sit back and do nothing until all of these have spent themselves into oblivion.
If Steve Jobs can do all this, having literally brought Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy, while being monstrously ill, can you imagine what he would have accomplished if he were well? Even if Apple implodes tomorrow, every CEO of every Fortune 500...no, every Wilshire 5000 company should resign in shame and embarrassment.
Absolute genius.
Who cares how bad the sales of HP WebOS tablets are going. Bet the barn by integrating WebOS to your PC desktops and laptops and make that grand ecosystem you were talking about!
They will come...... NOT!!!
Build half-a$$ hardware, half-baked software and you get consumers that know better than to buy your product.
Why haven't any of you Apple competitors figured it out yet?
Then why do people still buy Dell computers, they are half-rate hardware with half-baked software and they are still pushing out more Desktops than Apple can sell iMacs and Mac Minis, and HP is still selling more laptops than Apple.
And we all know Apple laptops are at the top of the game as far as industrial design, and the software, OS X Lion and iLife, it's the best on the market.
The reason? You can get an HP/Dell laptop for $299 or $399 when Apple starts at $999 for the bare-bones tiny MacBook Air, and goes up to $2700 for their 17" offerings.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that. If Apple really wanted to do the volume selling of laptops, they need to get their prices more in line with the rest of the market. This has always been the reason people turn to PCs, simply because they cannot afford the Mac alternative...the iPads and iPhones can be easily got for the sub-$500 range, that is why they sell like hotcakes.
Has anyone considered that Apple is going to bankrupt the "old line" technology companies? This is pretty much like the cold war.
Everyone is killing themselves to make an "iPad killer" and/or an "iPhone killer" and/or a "MacBook Air killer" and/or a "MacBook Pro killer". And they're failing. Miserably.
Google just spent more than its annual profits on MMI, just to compete with Apple so they can *give* away Android. HP is wasting time trying to sell TouchPads and hasn't managed to make either a decent Palm-based phone or tablet. Microsoft is creating a Windows 8 that may well abandon their existing Windows 7 base due to its radically different, touch-optimized UI.
The JooJoo. The Notion Ink Adam. Intel's Ultrabook initiative. Intel's Atom initiative. nVidia's Tegra. All promised to set the world on fire, but fizzled like a bad cigarette lighter.
Meanwhile, Apple has enough money to sit back and do nothing until all of these have spent themselves into oblivion.
If Steve Jobs can do all this, having literally brought Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy, while being monstrously ill, can you imagine what he would have accomplished if he were well? Even if Apple implodes tomorrow, every CEO of every Fortune 500...no, every Wilshire 5000 company should resign in shame and embarrassment.
Absolute genius.
Somewhere along the line someone will become a true full competitor to Apple when it comes to quality...Market share they are no where near the kind, but profits they are.
I am never a fan of one company becoming king, and I hope when all this sue, counter-sue, buy, sell, alter, drop, change, adopt, advance sh!t is done we end up with a lot of quality, at least 3 major OS's in the mobile realm (iOS obviously, a more mature Android, and probably WP7 though it's so boring despite being good looking) the same 2 in computing (Windows and Mac) and a hell of a lot of advanced tech for us consumers.
Anyone wishing for the death of any competitor is retarded. Which unfortunately a lot of cult-like iPhanboys seem to want. Fandroids as well, don't get me wrong, but Apple centric sites seem to be more than happy to wish death to companies than Android centric sites.
I want a cleaner, smoother, faster, more functional computing future. And these times are the foundation for that future.
People aren't falling for cheap poorly functioning devices anymore, Apple has changed that game...Android OEMs are upping their build quality and things are only going to get better for us all. Recent PCs are beautiful machines (high end ones anyways) and yea.
So thank you Apple for ushering in the future... but I sincerely hope you are not alone at the top.
Then why do people still buy Dell computers, they are half-rate hardware with half-baked software and they are still pushing out more Desktops than Apple can sell iMacs and Mac Minis, and HP is still selling more laptops than Apple.
And we all know Apple laptops are at the top of the game as far as industrial design, and the software, OS X Lion and iLife, it's the best on the market.
The reason? You can get an HP/Dell laptop for $299 or $399 when Apple starts at $999 for the bare-bones tiny MacBook Air, and goes up to $2700 for their 17" offerings.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that. If Apple really wanted to do the volume selling of laptops, they need to get their prices more in line with the rest of the market. This has always been the reason people turn to PCs, simply because they cannot afford the Mac alternative...the iPads and iPhones can be easily got for the sub-$500 range, that is why they sell like hotcakes.
Well I'd say a good 40% of the Windows PC buyers can't afford or can't see the added value in Apple PCs...probably less but I'm being generous. The other 60+% (people like me) honestly find Windows more appealing.
Using both in my day to day (Mac for work, PC for freelance) it is no contest which is better (opinion of course) and a lot of people have similar feelings.
Your argument is relatively sound but that tidbit sounded eerily like the argument that the only people buying Android devices are people who are too broke/cheap/poor to buy iPhones as if the high end Android devices don't cost just as much as an iPhone.
It appears that saving money isn't all that gratifying.
Apple doesn't bother competing on price. You can buy a 4GB iRiver MP3 player for $25 whereas the 2GB iPod shuffle goes for $49. And yet Apple has something like 90% of the PMP (Personal Music Player) market. Cost competition alone isn't sufficient, at least when we're talking about Apple.
Gee, who did not see this happening?
Oh yeah, Apple haters.
I think we can put a fork in WebOS.
Kind of a shame. Its better than Android.
Google just threw WebOS a lifeline by buying Motorola. all the other Android dependent smartphone OEM's have to start looking for OS alternatives immediately. if HP is smart and begins to license its smartphone WebOS pronto - which is in pretty good shape - it could have a big market impact real fast - 6 months to a year. that might even help prop up WebOS tablet sales a bit too.
let's see if HP has the brains to jump on this unexpected opportunity.
Apple can't compete on those price lines. Simple as that.
No, it's not that simple. You've seen the following, of course...
"Asustek Computer is hoping to release two Ultrabook models, an 11.6-inch UX21 and 13.3-inch UX31, later this year. While the UX21 will reportedly retail for $1000, the UX31 will cost $1600, a $300 premium on Apple's $1,299 13.3-inch MacBook Air."
This is in line with Intel's Ultrabook initiative, and it shows that Apple's competitor's can't build an Apple-class product at a price less than Apple's. Why? They simply can't compete with Apple's supply chain. Same for all of the people who tried to match Apple's prices on equivalent tablets. (Building a cheap 5" tablet isn't equivalent.)
So... given the above, what makes you think that Apple couldn't leverage its supply chain and compete on the low end if they really wanted to do so?
They don't, of course. It would dilute Apple's brand to built commodity POS plastic boxes, and why chase after nickels and dimes when you can be pulling in the majority of the high-end profits?
One report said that Apple got 90% of the sales of computers costing $1,000 or more. Ninety friction' percent. And it's not an "Apple Tax" when the competition can't build them at that price either...
So... what is wrong with the TouchPad? Why aren't people buying them?
Sales are disappointing because there was never much of a market in the first place.
Your average consumer is unlikely to have done much in the way of trawling tech sites to find the mediocre reviews and make much of an informed choice, they just went out to buy an iPad and not some other iPad clone, be it webos or android.
Also constantly fiddling with the price does nothing to promote regular sales patterns as it just encourages people to hold off buying and try and second guess when the next price drop is coming.
Meanwhile apple can still barely make iPads fast enough to keep up with demand.
Sales are disappointing because there was never much of a market in the first place.
Your average consumer is unlikely to have done much in the way of trawling tech sites to find the mediocre reviews and make much of an informed choice, they just went out to buy an iPad and not some other iPad clone, be it webos or android.
Like I said... there are HP TouchPad commercials on TV all the time.
Let's say someone goes to Best Buy to buy a TouchPad after seeing it on TV. Then they end up choosing a more expensive iPad instead?
'Consumers Don't Want Tablets, They Want iPads.'
I agree, but the competitors are actually pretty nice devices (Galaxy is my favorite non-iPad, but HP seems nice too based on my limited test run). They are all much more responsive than I anticipated.
On the other hand, I really don't see how somebody would pay for something similar to an iPad when you can get the real deal for the same price.
Accessories are another huge factor. With all these Droid tablets there's no single form factor to target when designing certain products, like say this.
and this is related to the HP tablet how???
Like I said... there are HP TouchPad commercials on TV all the time.
Let's say someone goes to Best Buy to buy a TouchPad after seeing it on TV. Then they end up choosing a more expensive iPad instead?
iPad has mass media exposure that other tablets don't get - you see reporters and presenters using them on tv shows all the time so people recognise the product and know the name. TouchPad is close enough to iPad that people may not even recognize it as being a different product.
I'm basing this on experience with the rest of my very non technical family and I wouldn't be overly surprised if a lot of people saw TouchPad adverts and failed to realise it wasn't actually an advert for an iPad... from the few TouchPad adverts I've seen here in the UK they are very similarly styled to the iPad ads, and people may just see a 10" tablet with "Pad" in the name... same thing surely... They then walk into best buy or whereever and ask for "that tablet thing I saw on the tv... the something pad"...
I'm not trying to cast all non tech folks as stupid, but having spent years trying to do tech support / tech education for my extended family there are a lot of people out there who really can't tell the difference - I'm related to at least 5 of them.