I really was looking forward to see what the next iteration of the Touchpad would be like. It is sad that HP is throwing in the towel. Does it make sense to cut your losses and quit, or to continue to improve on the product?
The fact that HP pulled the plug on the Touchpad means that they were not very confident of ever making a strong tablet.
We have a new tablet here in India released by Reliance. It costs about a quarter of what the high-end iPad costs. The ad itself made me laugh. It seems to be between 5"-7" and they just show that you can use your finger to swipe through various screens, like browsing, facebook etc. What was hilarious was that the first time the finger swipes the screen, the screen doesn't even change! It is only on the second swipe that it changes.
I'd love to see who would buy that. It runs Andriod. I didn't bother to find out which version.
I think HP should collect them all and try to sell them in the Phillippines. They already have that Manny Pacquiao commercial that is pretty good and he is enormously popular there.
Manny Pac-Man is absolutely one of the biggest assholes in the world today.
I'm thinking of buying one. You guys think it will sell for a lot in a few years? As a collector item I mean.
Maybe if you never take it out of the box. There would still be over 200,000 of them with quite a number of people thinking the same thing you are. If you're under 20 years of age and live to 80 you actually might get twice the price you paid for it. Just joking. I honestly don't think you'll ever get much for it as a collector's item.
How about those Turkish schools that want to buy tablets? Donate them for cryin' out loud.
Those schools want a tablet platform with a future and support and maybe some other incentives. Supposedly they'll need 15 million tablets over a four year period. The TouchPad is officially out of production. HP is in no position to offer those Turks a tablet that's already end-of-life.
However, maybe there are some schools or institutions that could use those TouchPads, but what about support. I have to say that writing off $100 million in unsold inventory is definitely a franchise-sized foulup. Those other iPad rivals are getting a fair warning of the risk of being stuck with a poorly selling tablet. Companies are going to read articles like this and think twice. It's a scary proposition.
I'm thinking of buying one. You guys think it will sell for a lot in a few years? As a collector item I mean.
There might be some value in 20-30 years, not in five years.
If you already owned an unopened box, you could just keep it and see if Lady Luck treats you well in 2040. A used unit is probably worthless.
That said, I doubt if a TouchPad is a worthwhile investment vehicle. Some tech museum might pay $25,000 for a mint TouchPad, but they'll only want one.
Heck, there's a better chance that a single share of AAPL issued as a paper stock certificate will be worth a lot more in twenty or thirty years.
Manny Pac-Man is absolutely one of the biggest assholes in the world today.
Huh???? You must be confused with Floyd Mayweather. Anyways, I got a chance to play with a TouchPad. I thought it was really good, just too late in the game now against an already 2nd iPad generation.
Walked into my local Costco this afternoon, past the big display of HP TouchPads in blister packs near the front door. It was a very full display of actual units, not the cardboard pictures you exchange at the checkout for the real thing. I guess Costco isn't much worried that someone will steal these suckers. Wonder how long it'll take them to move the HP display out of the way to make room for more of the Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Xoom, Toshiba Thrive and cheap Vizio tablets no one is buying either.
"my Costco" had the Xoom on display for a couple of months....some people touched it, looked at the price and kept going on. Maybe they should not have put it next to the underwear section?
Huh???? You must be confused with Floyd Mayweather. Anyways, I got a chance to play with a TouchPad. I thought it was really good, just too late in the game now against an already 2nd iPad generation.
Not confused at all. The Philippines is an extremely poor country, with over 25% of its population living on less than US$1.25 per day. The cities are horrendously overpopulated, and there are millions of families with handfuls of children living in poverty, having more, and more, and more children.
And Pac-man wants to ban condoms and all birth control in the country.
HP does make some pcs that are equal to apples. Their z series workstations are pretty much mac pros. Even down to price. If they bring that quality to the rest of their pc's they can ramp up the profit.
I thought HP had a chance to bring some real competition to Apple. Oh well.
Agreed. Believe it or not, this is bad news in the long run for Apple. The reason is that Apple needs good competition to keep them on their toes and spur development, otherwise they will go the way of every other company that has a monopoly, and that is to get bloated, then resort to using lawyers rather than developers to try and maintain that monopoly.
That would be a smart move. In the end the negative predictions about HP all came true.
HP didn't give it time to be successful, and that's a shame. WebOS deserves better and Samsung needs such an OS.
J.
That's my thinking too. Apple are behaving like playground bullies towards Samsung, so taking WebOS to Samsung could result in a more formidable opponent for Apple. This would be a good thing for all concerned as Apple won't get complacent when faced with Samsung hardware running WebOS. Trying to kill Samsung's products will only result in weaker competition and ultimately a weaker Apple.
Those schools want a tablet platform with a future and support
You have no way of knowing that. None.
Maybe what these schools want (need) is to fill a need at the best possible price - the same way they have to fill every other need. And maybe they're aware that support and maintenance means very little. The fact is, the kids will beat the tar out of the tablets (that's just normal) and they'll be obsolete (if they're still working at all) in two years anyway.
Schools buy things that they know have a limited life span ALL THE TIME, because they know what the stuff will have to go through. Price is king for almost every buying decision.
In addition, this will be the schools' first experience with tablets. Mistakes will be made. Make them on cheap machines. The beauty part is, even if they moved up to iPads in a few years, it's not like a company where everyone has to learn new software. Instead, you've got a whole new crop of students every year. If everything's changed, it does not matter.
That's the way the problem actually looks - IF you are really looking at (and dealing with) the problem and not just running your yap on a chat board.
Comments
If both Palm and HP could not make WebOS a success what makes you think HTC, LG or Acer would do any better?
As a smartphone OS it is dead. Even if someone made another WebOS phone/tablet would people buy it and would developers make apps?
Get back to me when Google cuts its ties with the rest of the manufacturers.
After what we've seen in tech this week, I think anything is possible.
The fact that HP pulled the plug on the Touchpad means that they were not very confident of ever making a strong tablet.
We have a new tablet here in India released by Reliance. It costs about a quarter of what the high-end iPad costs. The ad itself made me laugh. It seems to be between 5"-7" and they just show that you can use your finger to swipe through various screens, like browsing, facebook etc. What was hilarious was that the first time the finger swipes the screen, the screen doesn't even change! It is only on the second swipe that it changes.
I'd love to see who would buy that. It runs Andriod. I didn't bother to find out which version.
I think HP should collect them all and try to sell them in the Phillippines. They already have that Manny Pacquiao commercial that is pretty good and he is enormously popular there.
Manny Pac-Man is absolutely one of the biggest assholes in the world today.
I'm thinking of buying one. You guys think it will sell for a lot in a few years? As a collector item I mean.
Maybe if you never take it out of the box. There would still be over 200,000 of them with quite a number of people thinking the same thing you are. If you're under 20 years of age and live to 80 you actually might get twice the price you paid for it. Just joking. I honestly don't think you'll ever get much for it as a collector's item.
How about those Turkish schools that want to buy tablets? Donate them for cryin' out loud.
Those schools want a tablet platform with a future and support and maybe some other incentives. Supposedly they'll need 15 million tablets over a four year period. The TouchPad is officially out of production. HP is in no position to offer those Turks a tablet that's already end-of-life.
However, maybe there are some schools or institutions that could use those TouchPads, but what about support. I have to say that writing off $100 million in unsold inventory is definitely a franchise-sized foulup. Those other iPad rivals are getting a fair warning of the risk of being stuck with a poorly selling tablet. Companies are going to read articles like this and think twice. It's a scary proposition.
I'm thinking of buying one. You guys think it will sell for a lot in a few years? As a collector item I mean.
There might be some value in 20-30 years, not in five years.
If you already owned an unopened box, you could just keep it and see if Lady Luck treats you well in 2040. A used unit is probably worthless.
That said, I doubt if a TouchPad is a worthwhile investment vehicle. Some tech museum might pay $25,000 for a mint TouchPad, but they'll only want one.
Heck, there's a better chance that a single share of AAPL issued as a paper stock certificate will be worth a lot more in twenty or thirty years.
Manny Pac-Man is absolutely one of the biggest assholes in the world today.
Huh???? You must be confused with Floyd Mayweather. Anyways, I got a chance to play with a TouchPad. I thought it was really good, just too late in the game now against an already 2nd iPad generation.
Samsung could step in and purchase webOS and make it its own mobile OS.
That would be a smart move. In the end the negative predictions about HP all came true.
HP didn't give it time to be successful, and that's a shame. WebOS deserves better and Samsung needs such an OS.
J.
Walked into my local Costco this afternoon, past the big display of HP TouchPads in blister packs near the front door. It was a very full display of actual units, not the cardboard pictures you exchange at the checkout for the real thing. I guess Costco isn't much worried that someone will steal these suckers. Wonder how long it'll take them to move the HP display out of the way to make room for more of the Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Xoom, Toshiba Thrive and cheap Vizio tablets no one is buying either.
"my Costco" had the Xoom on display for a couple of months....some people touched it, looked at the price and kept going on. Maybe they should not have put it next to the underwear section?
Huh???? You must be confused with Floyd Mayweather. Anyways, I got a chance to play with a TouchPad. I thought it was really good, just too late in the game now against an already 2nd iPad generation.
Not confused at all. The Philippines is an extremely poor country, with over 25% of its population living on less than US$1.25 per day. The cities are horrendously overpopulated, and there are millions of families with handfuls of children living in poverty, having more, and more, and more children.
And Pac-man wants to ban condoms and all birth control in the country.
Asshole extraordinaire.
He hates HP with a passion and would probably throw billions in to webOS to make it successful and prove that Apotheker is incompetent.
I say, dump those tablets on the market for near-free, and let some wacky/cool hobby platform spring up via hacking the things for years to come!
Brilliant.
HP does make some pcs that are equal to apples. Their z series workstations are pretty much mac pros. Even down to price. If they bring that quality to the rest of their pc's they can ramp up the profit.
I hope they dont sell their pc business.
Too late for that hope.
Larry Ellison! That guy jason erlow from zdnet called it!
He hates HP with a passion and would probably throw billions in to webOS to make it successful and prove that Apotheker is incompetent.
Not sure that Ellison needs to prove that anymore.
Not sure that Ellison needs to prove that anymore.
Good point
I thought HP had a chance to bring some real competition to Apple. Oh well.
Agreed. Believe it or not, this is bad news in the long run for Apple. The reason is that Apple needs good competition to keep them on their toes and spur development, otherwise they will go the way of every other company that has a monopoly, and that is to get bloated, then resort to using lawyers rather than developers to try and maintain that monopoly.
That would be a smart move. In the end the negative predictions about HP all came true.
HP didn't give it time to be successful, and that's a shame. WebOS deserves better and Samsung needs such an OS.
J.
That's my thinking too. Apple are behaving like playground bullies towards Samsung, so taking WebOS to Samsung could result in a more formidable opponent for Apple. This would be a good thing for all concerned as Apple won't get complacent when faced with Samsung hardware running WebOS. Trying to kill Samsung's products will only result in weaker competition and ultimately a weaker Apple.
Those schools want a tablet platform with a future and support
You have no way of knowing that. None.
Maybe what these schools want (need) is to fill a need at the best possible price - the same way they have to fill every other need. And maybe they're aware that support and maintenance means very little. The fact is, the kids will beat the tar out of the tablets (that's just normal) and they'll be obsolete (if they're still working at all) in two years anyway.
Schools buy things that they know have a limited life span ALL THE TIME, because they know what the stuff will have to go through. Price is king for almost every buying decision.
In addition, this will be the schools' first experience with tablets. Mistakes will be made. Make them on cheap machines. The beauty part is, even if they moved up to iPads in a few years, it's not like a company where everyone has to learn new software. Instead, you've got a whole new crop of students every year. If everything's changed, it does not matter.
That's the way the problem actually looks - IF you are really looking at (and dealing with) the problem and not just running your yap on a chat board.
The news came amid a bevy of changes announced by HP, including the cancellation of webOS,
Not this crap again!
This statement is factually inaccurate, and in opposition to what HP has said.
I thought this got killed a long time ago?
hp.com/slate