What on earth is going on at HP? Now you see the TouchPad, now you don't, now you may see it again. HP is to make another batch of TouchPads. Don't know when, don't know the price, but more are coming.
HP CEO Leo Apotheker's decision to scrap the TouchPad less than two months after its launch dismayed hundreds of HP-ers who thought they'd produced a great product.
Now it seems Apotheker is un-scrapping it.
No one knows how many they will make or what price they will sell for, and HP is hinting there may not be enough to go round. "
"We don't know exactly when these units will be available or how many we'll get," says HP's Mark Budgell, "we can't promise we'll have enough for everyone."
Launched in July at $500 the TouchPad price was quickly slashed to $400.
Then, when HP CEO Leo Apotheker decided to axe TouchPad they put up outstanding stock for sale a $99.
There was a huge rush for product with retailers' sites crashing as orders piled in.
According to IHS iSuppli the Touchpad costs $306 to make so, at $99 HP was making a $207 loss on every one.
Is this clever marketing as when the Japanese created a cult around the tamagotchi electronic pet?
Tamagotchi manufacturers would create shortages, then put around rumours when the next batch would be out, and then more rumours about which stores would have them.
This created huge crowds and excitement in the streets and built up a mythic mystique around the product.
In the same way, when the $99 TouchPad was announced, web-sites were posting sightings of web-sites selling device which then got swamped with demand.
Is HP clever enough to run this kind of marketing wheeze? Is it going to elevate the TouchPad to cult status?
Or is it just demonstrating its inability to run a whelk stall?
Best comment I've seen on this topic so far: "HP is turning into the Charlie Sheen of the tech world."
And it didn't start with their wacky pricing.
IMO, the crazy started with their premature product announcement, followed by the bizarre "better together" sharing thing between the tablet and phone, only to find out that they wouldn't ship at anywhere near the same time, and finally this.
I'm with the author of the quote: surely tiger blood is somehow involved.
It's all part of HP's cunning plan to fit the company back into the HP garage at 367 Addison Av, Palo Alto.
I doubt it is cleverness. The fire sale looks more like a panic reaction, and the reproduction probably has more to do with warehouses of unused components than with a genuine wish to keep the platform alive. But in the end, that may be the effect: If HP finds that it can sell the new batch at a price that would imply profit for a version two Touchpad, they may, indeed, make one such.
Mr M, Simply, I just think the whole thing is just actually a "balls up".
As usual someone at the top doesn't know what they are doing.
Ha Ha, nice one Mike
I think it started as a balls-up, Mr C, but who knows what may happen now?
How long will it take Apple to sue HP if they put this back on the market?
I just hope that before they go tits up they get some nice T-shirts and coffee mugs printed. Maybe a pic of Carly's bum sitting on something iconically HP.
Yuk, greg
just as long as it takes Leo Apotheker to change his mind and can it again, Terry
It's not a 10.1 inch tablet so not sure what Apple will sue over. After all Apple started their first design using components from HP as was allowed in those days.
In addition to everything which has already been said, I suspect they're thinking an installed base and apparent consumer interest will help license or sell WebOS to someone else. I'm skeptical anyone will take it up unless they literally give it away but who knows.
I was "lucky" enough to get a fire-sale Touchpad - How they thought it would sell at the same price level as iPad and the best Android tablets I have no idea.
The build quality is good, but the interface is terrible, worst part being the browser, coupled with basic functionality being missing - like accessing network storage and media hubs - it really was terribad value.
The Android port can't come a moment too soon.