HP begins TouchPad clearance with $99 fire sale

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  • Reply 161 of 243
    grmacgrmac Posts: 67member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Granmastak View Post


    You can say that again. In a way it's back to the future... Everything old is new again, history repeats itself... thin clients (tablets instead of terminals) and mainframe (cloud instead of s370). Of course it's much more sophisticated than before, but the idea is the same.



    HP said, I want to be in the mainframe business and not the terminals cause I just got my a$$ kicked.



    The pendulum says everyone eventually gets their a$$es CICS...
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  • Reply 162 of 243
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smallwheels View Post


    This HP crash is a good lesson for Apple to learn about pricing. They will see just how fast items sell when the price is significantly lower. Apple won't drop prices below cost but they might change their mind about margins. In all things there is a point where dropping the price causes more sales that make up for the price drop in the overall profit scheme.



    It would be good for all of us if Apple decided to do this with their products. They would get more overall income with lower prices. Their mind share would grow much faster and it would clobber even more of their competition.



    That's not going to happen, nor is it the real lesson here.



    The lesson for anyone smart is "if your product is not attractive enough, no one will buy it at a price high enough to cover your costs". Obviously, if you give something away, people are going to take it, but that would be an insanely stupid business strategy.



    Apple can't make products fast enough to meet demand now - and none of the competitors are showing any chance of being a decent challenge. Why should they cut the price?
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  • Reply 163 of 243
    kibitzerkibitzer Posts: 1,114member
    Those unfortunates who forked over big bucks to Best Buy in July for HP TouchPads don't have to feel they've been completely screwed. Best Buy has extended its refund/exchange policy on TouchPads from 14 days to 60 days.



    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Computer...at250800050019
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  • Reply 164 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    ... and both bands loved Buddy Holly and were heavily influenced by him. I personally feel he is the strongest bridge between them and their main influences which you accurately describe.





    Interesting. I'll have to find out more. I know a lot more about the Sun guys, like Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and other early rockabilly artists. Buddy Holly is an artist I have yet to explore deeply.



    But if you like Buddy Holly, from my cursory knowledge of him, my guess is that you'd like Carl Perkins too. He's one of the greats. How do you feel about Johnny Burnett's early stuff?
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  • Reply 165 of 243
    esoomesoom Posts: 155member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    That's not going to happen, nor is it the real lesson here.



    The lesson for anyone smart is "if your product is not attractive enough, no one will buy it at a price high enough to cover your costs". Obviously, if you give something away, people are going to take it, but that would be an insanely stupid business strategy.



    Apple can't make products fast enough to meet demand now - and none of the competitors are showing any chance of being a decent challenge. Why should they cut the price?





    Agreed, how in the hell is HP taking $100,000,000 write off on a POS craptablet teaching Apple anything?



    It reinforces what Apple's been doing all along, build a better mousetrap and sell the crap out of it, try not to break your back lifting the giant bags of money earned...



    Quote:

    [Gizmodo:



    But for every detail that Palm gets right—the re-sizable keyboard that’s pretty nice to type on—it blows something else, like not having a double-tap spacebar shortcut for periods, or the lengthy, complicated mounting process to get your music on there. …



    There are critical apps in beta form, like Kindle and some surprises, like Facebook. … It’s funny that the TouchPad is the third tablet platform to run Flash, and it’s also the third tablet on which Flash runs like garbage.



    The Messages app was a consistent bag of hurt, refusing to sign on at all sometimes, or to deliver AIM messages, even though I kept receiving them. Email contents wouldn’t show up, often up to 10 seconds after I opened a message. The HP app to get music onto your TouchPad is loathesome—pure HP, and sweet Christ I hope it’s not a sign of things to come for Palm. (Speaking of: Where’s the cloud music?) And there are so many more little problems throughout (ugh, Skype).



    Josh Topolsky:



    Presses to buttons on the screen would go unanswered, applications would suddenly pause, lists I was scrolling moved intermittently and erratically (or would just disappear altogether). Sometimes the device felt smooth and light, while at other moments it locked up or sputtered to a point of complete aggravation. More than once I had the entire system freeze and then reboot while I was in the midst of navigating (or trying to navigate) my way out of some weird UI fender bender. All across the OS I found myself discovering dark corners of unfinished or untested chunks of the UI, like when I would use the upward swipe gesture to bring up the launcher, and accidentally open an app instead.



    And it wasn’t just about speed or smoothness. The new virtual keyboard provided here — while very capable at times — would often not respond or respond slowly to key presses, making for messy emails and messages. …



    Skype, while integrated into the core of the OS for calls (more on this below), was generally buggy, frozen, unable to connect, or just downright awkward to use. Rotation on the device was a pain too, as it would often change direction unexpectedly, or alternately fail to respond to orientation shifts when it was asked.



    Walt Mossberg:



    [On] various occasions, the email app failed to display the contents of messages, the photos app failed to display pictures, and the game “Angry Birds” crashed repeatedly. All of these problems required a reboot of the device to resolve. In addition, I found the TouchPad grew sluggish the more I used it. Again, a reboot was needed to restore normal speed. …



    The Web browser generally worked well, but Flash was uneven. Most Flash videos played fine, but some froze or stuttered badly, even on a fast Internet connection. A site written entirely in Flash wouldn’t even load.



    Harry McCracken:



    In my trials, the TouchPad too often just didn’t work. A few examples:



    Music playback didn’t always begin the moment I pressed play, and sometimes stammered mid-song;

    A 1080p movie that looked dynamite on the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 wouldn’t play at all on the TouchPad;

    The tablet thoughtfully discovered and configured the HP printer that sits on my network. But whenever I tried to print, it told me that my OfficeJet was incompatible.

    The TouchPad was at its shakiest when I crammed its RAM with a bountiful supply of apps, Web pages, and other items. Like an overtaxed Windows 98 computer, it would crack under the pressure, rendering screens incompletely, ignoring my input, and (on one occasion) spontaneously rebooting. Closing a few programs restored it to good working order. I know that it’s possible to build a tablet that doesn’t freak out when it’s short on memory, though — because I’ve never seen an iPad or Honeycomb tablet do it.



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  • Reply 166 of 243
    grmacgrmac Posts: 67member
    This: http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTER...sAAAExQ1cRE3Kg



    Will get you this when reviewing your Cart:



    Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a03e9'



    Out of memory



    /LM/W3SVC/600510919/Root/dstore/global.asa, line 0
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  • Reply 167 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    I probably shouldn't have said it as it just gets people riled up but you are wrong.



    I was there. In England, as it happened.



    Both groups started off doing a lot of covers but with some original songs. The Stones came to the Beatles to get them to write some original songs for them as they were having trouble selling their own even though they were already successful with the covers as you note. The Stones bought songs off of the Beatles when the Beatles already had copious amounts of original material.



    I'm not claiming that the Stones were an outgrowth of the Beatles or were heavily influenced by them but the Beatles were definitely doing their own original material before the Stones and the Stones definitely bought some of their early material off of Lennon and McCartney before they got good at writing their own stuff. There's nothing wrong with that, it's how things were and it's how a group learns to write. But it did happen that way.



    Releasing "I Wanna Be Your Man" hardly justifies your prior statement, which was "Mick and the boys got their start by copying the Beatles."



    And the Stones, at that time, were NOT "already successful with the covers", as you say above. I Wanna be Your Man was their second single release.



    I take it that you are not a Professor of musicology.
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  • Reply 168 of 243
    I saw the news on AI last night and headed out this morning to see if I could find one for sale. Wal-Mart and Office Depot were both sold out by 9:45 this morning, Best Buy opened at 10 and said they couldn't sell because all stock was going back. I then tried Staples. Only the young guy behind the tech support counter had heard about the price drop, but when I showed the guy who seemed to be in charge the printout from HP's website, he took to the office, came back and sold it to me at the lower price. The tech support guy got the other one.



    I want an iPad, but don't need an iPad. I would never have bought any competing tablet. But at $99, I just got myself a backlit Kindle that can also surf the net. I'm pleased with that.
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  • Reply 169 of 243
    hill60hill60 Posts: 6,992member
    They've been pulled in Australia.



    The HP site links to a retailer (with exclusive rights to sell) who has a "page not found" error
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  • Reply 170 of 243
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    HP stated Friday it is taking a $100 Million loss on the TouchPad units. They cannot allow Best Buy to then go out and resell them.
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  • Reply 171 of 243
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    HP stated Friday it is taking a $100 Million loss on the TouchPad units. They cannot allow Best Buy to then go out and resell them.



    Why do people insist on making fools of themselves online by posting about subjects they know nothing about?



    The two issues (HP's write down and Best Buy's ability to sell them) are entirely unrelated. For example, let's say there were 250,000 units out there and HP reduced the price an average of $400 each. The retailer could still sell them (obviously at a much lower price) and HP would have a $100 M write-off.
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  • Reply 172 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Why do people insist on making fools of themselves online by posting about subjects they know nothing about?



    Geez, take it easy! It's just a forum where we're just shooting the shit, no big deal! It's not like its the HP executive board room or anything
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  • Reply 173 of 243
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Granmastak View Post


    Geez, take it easy! It's just a forum where we're just shooting the shit, no big deal! It's not like its the HP executive board room or anything



    Sorry, but I happen to believe that people should keep their mouths shut when they don't know anything about a topic. Not only does it confuse innocent people who are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, but it wastes the time of people who DO know what's going on.



    But feel free to parade your stupidity if you wish.
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  • Reply 174 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hill60 View Post


    They've been pulled in Australia.



    The HP site links to a retailer (with exclusive rights to sell) who has a "page not found" error



    Nice! They were in such a rush they didn't even bother to put a "dear John" page.
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  • Reply 175 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Granmastak View Post


    Geez, take it easy! It's just a forum where we're just shooting the shit, no big deal! It's not like its the HP executive board room or anything



    People are fooling themselves if they come to a forum thinking it's a court of law. Rules of evidence are a "little" looser in the courtroom.
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  • Reply 176 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Sorry, but I happen to believe that people should keep their mouths shut when they don't know anything about a topic. Not only does it confuse innocent people who are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, but it wastes the time of people who DO know what's going on.



    But feel free to parade your stupidity if you wish.



    What??!! There are people on here that know what's going on??!! Har!
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  • Reply 177 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Sorry, but I happen to believe that people should keep their mouths shut when they don't know anything about a topic. Not only does it confuse innocent people who are smart enough to keep their mouths shut, but it wastes the time of people who DO know what's going on.



    But feel free to parade your stupidity if you wish.



    Why thank you great wizard for allowing me to parade my stupidity. Very kind of you
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  • Reply 178 of 243
    HP is STILL running TV commercials at this moment that promote "HP Touchpads starting at $399"



    What a collection of idiots.



    At least change the copy... "PC division for sale". Or "potential mobile OS for sale, cheap"
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  • Reply 179 of 243
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    What??!! There are people on here that know what's going on??!! Har!



    My magic iBall says " don't count on it"
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  • Reply 180 of 243
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grmac View Post


    This: http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTER...sAAAExQ1cRE3Kg



    Will get you this when reviewing your Cart:



    Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a03e9'



    Out of memory



    /LM/W3SVC/600510919/Root/dstore/global.asa, line 0



    I've been trying for about an hour (using Safari, Firefox and IE on a Mac and a Windows PC). If you keep trying, eventually, it show you the basket. Then, if you click on 'order', it will take you to the next step (sometimes). But I haven't been able to get past that step.



    It's very erratic and each step of the way fails about 90-95% of the time and occasionally works. I called HP and they said that's normal behavior for an item that's not in stock. WTF? Instead of telling you it's not in stock (as the home and home business site does), the small and medium business site acts erratically - sometimes showing you a basket and sometimes not, sometimes hanging, sometimes giving the above error. I can understand it being out of stock. I can even understand if the load is so extremely heavy that it might behave erratically. But for HP to say that's normal behavior is absurd.



    No wonder these people can't even make a tablet that they can get a fair price for. It's amazing they manage to do anything.
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