Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
Way back in the 90s when Dennis Miller was still funny, he had a great joke in his stand-up routine that sums this up. "Don't you just love cheap clothing stores that give you 2-for-1 sales? Hey folks, two of sh*t is sh*t. If they really want to f*ck you, they'll give you 3."
Sums up exactly how I feel about the Touchpad at $99. I've got better things to spend a hundred bucks on and I just don't get the frenzy to snap these things up.
Again, i only expect it to do very few things well. Can I get any other kind of computer that has a decent sized screen with the same battery life (~8:33 real usage from Engadget), that I can do email, web surf and show pics to the grandparents on? In the realm of my intended use, I don't think this thing can be beat.
It made total sense to buy as many of these at $99 as you were able to. The 16gb version is going for anywhere between $225-290 on eBay and easily $200 or more on Craigslist. Get 5 and sell them for enough to get an iPad for free.
The one I was able to get will allow my daughter to watch Sesame Street and Dora without the risk of her breaking the iPad.
Plus the so called "analyst" seems to ignore the fact that when HP announced this final run that they specifically said they may not be sold for the same $99 price. Which leads to another important reason why HP may be doing this. They may want to test demand at a higher price point, likely between $199-$299.-kpluck
Well, that would be a problem. Because HP has basically killed webOS. I know, I know, they may license it out or sell it. But, developers aren't going to put energy into this platform. Without an ecosystem, it's dead. HP could have lowered the price slowly to find a good sell point, but they screwed themselves by going straight to $99. At $199+ these puppies are going to sit on the shelve because everyone expects it to drop.
The more the merrier. I wonder what the price will be for the remaining run of Touchpads. They probably won't have the same low prices. HP will experiment to see just how high they can go and still get sales. They will probably try $250 and $299 at first. If they don't sell then they'll drop from there.
Were there enough people getting Touchpads and falling in love with them to create a new demand at a higher price? If so the word of mouth could justify the higher price.
This is just plain dumb. HP has already set the price for the TouchPad at $99.00. No one in his/her right mind will pay more.
Let us not forget that this is not a fixed-function electronic device. It is soft programmable. The thing about programmed functions is that they have bugs. They also become obsolete. For example, one of my favorite TV stations recently abandoned its iOS app for a different iOS app. Who will update the buggy apps. The abandoned apps cannot be replaced. There won't even be a place to download apps.
The United Nations passes a resolution to ban gasoline. You run out and pay a premium for a 2011 Escalade. Makes no sense.
So, if we're calling the cost of a touchpad at $300, why didn't they do the smart thing to begin with and sell this thing for $400. With HP's economies of scale the estimate is probably too high (but then added distribution costs probably mean it's about right).
They did lower the price permanently to $400 about two weeks before they killed it.
Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
You'd be an idiot to buy a Kindle over this with this being so much cheaper and more functional. If you just realize that it will make the cheapest ebook reader with the most functionality then you got a great deal. I was going to buy one for my niece because she's wanting a Kindle, but for $50 less, I could get this and she could read her Kindle books AND do all the other stuff the TouchPad can do out of the box.
Unless I misunderstood, this didn't stop working after HP decided to not support it anymore. Your Kindle Reader will still work, your email will still work, your web browser will still work, and whatever else the device comes with will all continue to work.
So yeah, it's pretty easy to see why this was so popular at $99. If they sell more at $99 I'll be the first in line. At $199, not so much. I'll just get them Kindles (iPad is a little too expensive for a gift for nieces and nephews .
The WebOS / TouchPad fiasco is such a unique situation that speculating about their future is almost certain to bite you in the ass. A lot of people are buying TouchPads for $99 not expecting much, but end up really enjoying the OS. A community of WebOS afficinados already exists, and they're not going to just throw in the towel overnight. Now you've got a huge batch of geeks getting them, many of whom might not have iPads saying, "Hey, this isn't bad but if I could just do this . . ." And so the community begins to grow.
Before Jobs came to Apple it's not like NeXTSTEP looked like it had a bright future, either. All the ingredients for something really unique are present.
Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
Way back in the 90s when Dennis Miller was still funny, he had a great joke in his stand-up routine that sums this up. "Don't you just love cheap clothing stores that give you 2-for-1 sales? Hey folks, two of sh*t is sh*t. If they really want to f*ck you, they'll give you 3."
Sums up exactly how I feel about the Touchpad at $99. I've got better things to spend a hundred bucks on and I just don't get the frenzy to snap these things up.
It's called 'human nature'. The art of the deal. It works very well in supermarkets and department stores. Somehow, I always thought it worked mainly on women, but I guess that's because they're the ones doing most of the shopping. A shopper might pass over something they don't really need if they consider the price too high. Lower the price considerably and all of a sudden, BOOM, they've figured out a need for it. It's just too good to pass up on. Nobody wants to miss out on a 'deal' because then you reason you're in a better position than the person who misses it. The shoppers will all be fighting over this sudden 'deal' whether they really want it or not. There are plenty of consumers that are immune to price drops. They figure if they don't need it at the higher price, then they also don't need it a lower price.
I think it also has to do with how much disposable income a person has. I only know that if I want a Porsche Boxster, nothing will persuade me to buy a Kia Sonata at any price and I'd probably refuse it even if it was for free. Some people could easily rationalize the switch and say they could use the money for something else or the Kia Sonata is actually more practical and so forth.
I think it's mainly the tech-heads that are buying the $99 TouchPad because they just like to play with electronic toys but they say they're doing it for some other reason. The most amusing excuse I've heard is that the TouchPad may be used to run Android OS as if that's some real benefit. Is the TouchPad better than the more expensive Kindle? Probably, so why not go for what was a $500 device. It's probably of better quality than a Kindle, for sure. The only thing is that if the TouchPad breaks, who fixes it? Are parts even available for it? Give it to your son or daughter and they break it, kiss the $99 goodbye. I guess the bargain hunter rationalizes that as a justifiable loss.
Consumers buy what they buy for whatever reasons and that's all there is to it. I only concern myself with my own reasons for buying things but I'll admit that I've found this near giveaway sale of the TouchPad very interesting since this sort of deal doesn't happen very often that I'm aware of. I certainly don't want it for even $99 since I'd rather put the money towards something more expensive of higher quality with customer support. I never try to buy something on the cheap because I reason that you get what you pay for most of the time. It may be my loss for missing the TouchPad: Bargain of the Century but I can live with it. HP sure it getting a lot of press from this TouchPad deal, so it may benefit them for some strategic WebOS licensing deal.
It's my opinion that this whole thing was just a way for HP to make headlines... and then BAM Hp Touchpads for everyone...
Their marketers must have known that webOS's main problem was with it's mindshare, now it has that...
"Making headlines" this way is something HP wants??
One has to wonder what kind of CEO this Apotheker guy is. It sounds like he gave the order to kill the TouchPad unilaterally without consulting anyone else in the organization, hence the huge number of stumbles day-to-day in carrying out his imperative. A CEO can't think of all the ramifications of everything - which is why the smart ones know when to draw on the advice of a few trusted colleagues. One thing this sorry scenario lacks is smarts.
If the TouchPad episode is a window into how HP is being run these days, don't count it as the last embarrassing and costly misstep. Stay tuned. More management SNAFUs may be in the offing.
(Mod Edit: no, we're NOT cool with racist comments. We have lives too, and we don't read every comment. Way to take a bad comment and think it's OK to make a worse one, good going)
How is this evidence that any of the people paying $200 for those TouchPads on eBay are in their right minds?
I'm curious, did Adam Smith say anything about individuals being in their right minds to make a market work? It's been a long time since I've read his works.
I'm curious, did Adam Smith say anything about individuals being in their right minds to make a market work? It's been a long time since I've read his works.
Nowhere did I say that markets were restricted to people in their right minds.
Comments
Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
Way back in the 90s when Dennis Miller was still funny, he had a great joke in his stand-up routine that sums this up. "Don't you just love cheap clothing stores that give you 2-for-1 sales? Hey folks, two of sh*t is sh*t. If they really want to f*ck you, they'll give you 3."
Sums up exactly how I feel about the Touchpad at $99. I've got better things to spend a hundred bucks on and I just don't get the frenzy to snap these things up.
Again, i only expect it to do very few things well. Can I get any other kind of computer that has a decent sized screen with the same battery life (~8:33 real usage from Engadget), that I can do email, web surf and show pics to the grandparents on? In the realm of my intended use, I don't think this thing can be beat.
The one I was able to get will allow my daughter to watch Sesame Street and Dora without the risk of her breaking the iPad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNnZ5TRHsM
(About .07 seconds in).
For God's sake, this is also starting to look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNnZ5TRHsM
(About .07 seconds in).
lol!
Plus the so called "analyst" seems to ignore the fact that when HP announced this final run that they specifically said they may not be sold for the same $99 price. Which leads to another important reason why HP may be doing this. They may want to test demand at a higher price point, likely between $199-$299.-kpluck
Well, that would be a problem. Because HP has basically killed webOS. I know, I know, they may license it out or sell it. But, developers aren't going to put energy into this platform. Without an ecosystem, it's dead. HP could have lowered the price slowly to find a good sell point, but they screwed themselves by going straight to $99. At $199+ these puppies are going to sit on the shelve because everyone expects it to drop.
The more the merrier. I wonder what the price will be for the remaining run of Touchpads. They probably won't have the same low prices. HP will experiment to see just how high they can go and still get sales. They will probably try $250 and $299 at first. If they don't sell then they'll drop from there.
Were there enough people getting Touchpads and falling in love with them to create a new demand at a higher price? If so the word of mouth could justify the higher price.
This is just plain dumb. HP has already set the price for the TouchPad at $99.00. No one in his/her right mind will pay more.
Let us not forget that this is not a fixed-function electronic device. It is soft programmable. The thing about programmed functions is that they have bugs. They also become obsolete. For example, one of my favorite TV stations recently abandoned its iOS app for a different iOS app. Who will update the buggy apps. The abandoned apps cannot be replaced. There won't even be a place to download apps.
The United Nations passes a resolution to ban gasoline. You run out and pay a premium for a 2011 Escalade. Makes no sense.
This is just plain dumb. HP has already set the price for the TouchPad at $99.00. No one in his/her right mind will pay more.
Wrong. Huge numbers are being sold on eBay for well over $200. That's the price the market has determined them to be worth.
For God's sake, this is also starting to look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNnZ5TRHsM
(About .07 seconds in).
Don't you mean about 7 sec in?
Don't forget to watch till about 48 sec in to see the final fate of HP and the TouchPad.
If they could reduce/simplify interior components while keeping the exterior fit and finish, they could potentially sell a ton.
Oh and btw I tried to find of the $99/$149 models and couldn't get one. Was sold out everywhere I visited and not available online.
So, if we're calling the cost of a touchpad at $300, why didn't they do the smart thing to begin with and sell this thing for $400. With HP's economies of scale the estimate is probably too high (but then added distribution costs probably mean it's about right).
They did lower the price permanently to $400 about two weeks before they killed it.
Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
You'd be an idiot to buy a Kindle over this with this being so much cheaper and more functional. If you just realize that it will make the cheapest ebook reader with the most functionality then you got a great deal. I was going to buy one for my niece because she's wanting a Kindle, but for $50 less, I could get this and she could read her Kindle books AND do all the other stuff the TouchPad can do out of the box.
Unless I misunderstood, this didn't stop working after HP decided to not support it anymore. Your Kindle Reader will still work, your email will still work, your web browser will still work, and whatever else the device comes with will all continue to work.
So yeah, it's pretty easy to see why this was so popular at $99. If they sell more at $99 I'll be the first in line. At $199, not so much. I'll just get them Kindles (iPad is a little too expensive for a gift for nieces and nephews
Is this an HP version of supply management?
...This just in...
HP in negotiations to simultaneously enter two electronics marketplaces...
Today, HP announced that they have reached preliminary agreement to purchase RIM's Tablet business and Levono's PC business.. Film at 11.
Wrong. Huge numbers are being sold on eBay for well over $200. That's the price the market has determined them to be worth.
How is this evidence that any of the people paying $200 for those TouchPads on eBay are in their right minds?
Before Jobs came to Apple it's not like NeXTSTEP looked like it had a bright future, either. All the ingredients for something really unique are present.
Don't take this personally because I honestly don't mean it to be insulting, but I cannot get my head around the logic of people like you and others buying these things at any price. I wouldn't pay $10 for a Touchpad because I know it's a dead-end and failed in the market and would probably just collect dust. I just don't understand the thinking of jumping on a failed product because it's suddenly cheaper than it was a week ago.
Way back in the 90s when Dennis Miller was still funny, he had a great joke in his stand-up routine that sums this up. "Don't you just love cheap clothing stores that give you 2-for-1 sales? Hey folks, two of sh*t is sh*t. If they really want to f*ck you, they'll give you 3."
Sums up exactly how I feel about the Touchpad at $99. I've got better things to spend a hundred bucks on and I just don't get the frenzy to snap these things up.
It's called 'human nature'. The art of the deal. It works very well in supermarkets and department stores. Somehow, I always thought it worked mainly on women, but I guess that's because they're the ones doing most of the shopping. A shopper might pass over something they don't really need if they consider the price too high. Lower the price considerably and all of a sudden, BOOM, they've figured out a need for it. It's just too good to pass up on. Nobody wants to miss out on a 'deal' because then you reason you're in a better position than the person who misses it. The shoppers will all be fighting over this sudden 'deal' whether they really want it or not. There are plenty of consumers that are immune to price drops. They figure if they don't need it at the higher price, then they also don't need it a lower price.
I think it also has to do with how much disposable income a person has. I only know that if I want a Porsche Boxster, nothing will persuade me to buy a Kia Sonata at any price and I'd probably refuse it even if it was for free. Some people could easily rationalize the switch and say they could use the money for something else or the Kia Sonata is actually more practical and so forth.
I think it's mainly the tech-heads that are buying the $99 TouchPad because they just like to play with electronic toys but they say they're doing it for some other reason. The most amusing excuse I've heard is that the TouchPad may be used to run Android OS as if that's some real benefit. Is the TouchPad better than the more expensive Kindle? Probably, so why not go for what was a $500 device. It's probably of better quality than a Kindle, for sure. The only thing is that if the TouchPad breaks, who fixes it? Are parts even available for it? Give it to your son or daughter and they break it, kiss the $99 goodbye. I guess the bargain hunter rationalizes that as a justifiable loss.
Consumers buy what they buy for whatever reasons and that's all there is to it. I only concern myself with my own reasons for buying things but I'll admit that I've found this near giveaway sale of the TouchPad very interesting since this sort of deal doesn't happen very often that I'm aware of. I certainly don't want it for even $99 since I'd rather put the money towards something more expensive of higher quality with customer support. I never try to buy something on the cheap because I reason that you get what you pay for most of the time. It may be my loss for missing the TouchPad: Bargain of the Century but I can live with it. HP sure it getting a lot of press from this TouchPad deal, so it may benefit them for some strategic WebOS licensing deal.
It's my opinion that this whole thing was just a way for HP to make headlines... and then BAM Hp Touchpads for everyone...
Their marketers must have known that webOS's main problem was with it's mindshare, now it has that...
"Making headlines" this way is something HP wants??
One has to wonder what kind of CEO this Apotheker guy is. It sounds like he gave the order to kill the TouchPad unilaterally without consulting anyone else in the organization, hence the huge number of stumbles day-to-day in carrying out his imperative. A CEO can't think of all the ramifications of everything - which is why the smart ones know when to draw on the advice of a few trusted colleagues. One thing this sorry scenario lacks is smarts.
If the TouchPad episode is a window into how HP is being run these days, don't count it as the last embarrassing and costly misstep. Stay tuned. More management SNAFUs may be in the offing.
(Mod Edit: no, we're NOT cool with racist comments. We have lives too, and we don't read every comment. Way to take a bad comment and think it's OK to make a worse one, good going)
How is this evidence that any of the people paying $200 for those TouchPads on eBay are in their right minds?
I'm curious, did Adam Smith say anything about individuals being in their right minds to make a market work? It's been a long time since I've read his works.
I'm curious, did Adam Smith say anything about individuals being in their right minds to make a market work? It's been a long time since I've read his works.
Nowhere did I say that markets were restricted to people in their right minds.