Image Courtesy of Demotivation
I recently remarked about how and why I didn’t buy a HP TouchPad during the recent mega-sale at Staples and elsewhere. As I mentioned then, Dan had also looked at the TouchPad when it was released and described it as “a bit too laggy for my taste”. Since then he posted about the upcoming AT&T 3G model with a faster processor, and said the main reason he didn’t get one during the big sale was his local store didn’t have any. My post also drew comments from others less than thrilled with the TouchPad.
Turns out we are far from alone – just before the Staples deal, the HP TouchPad was featured on Woot.com for $120 off with $5 shipping! It was a stunning deal, and it sold … 612 units! Wow … that is just mind-numbingly bad – Woot is one of the biggest fast-deal sites, so if HP couldn’t eek out even 1000 sales, that is just pathetic.
Wait … it gets worse!
AllThingsD is reporting that Best Buy took delivery of 270,000 HP TouchPads, and doesn’t want to pay for ‘dead stock’ and is now looking for HP to take them back after barely denting their inventory with sales:
According to one source who’s seen internal HP reports, Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.
A second person who has seen Best Buy’s TouchPad sales figures confirmed the results as “consistent with what I’ve seen,” and went so far as to say that 25,000 sold might be “charitable.” This source suggested that the 25,000-unit sales number may not account for units that consumers return to stores for a refund.
When HP had the weekend discount people told me that was the environment HP lived in – frequent discounts. Then when the price drop became permanent some said that HP used the sales to bolster interest and the lower price to directly attack the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab.
But now that it is clear that even dropping the price considerably and having massive sales hasn’t moved the product. I wonder what the apologists will say to THAT?
As a fan of webOS and Palm it is sad that their entire product line is a dismal failure – but that is exactly what it is. The fact that the #1 ‘big box’ retailer hasn’t managed to sell even 25,000 in more than six weeks is stunning. I have no idea what HP does now – as some say, they need to get SOMETHING for the billion or so they plunked down. But as of now, all it looks like they’ll get is a big box of returned TouchPads from Best Buy and elsewhere.
What I find most astounding is the lack of traction that ALL tablet makers have versus Apple’s iPad/iPad2. Despite Android phones’ success, Honeycomb has not had one product yet that has seriously challenged Apple’s dominance. And Honeycomb has had much better luck overall than any other competitor.
Part of the problem is that most tablet products are simply of the “me too” variety and do not add much that the iPad doesn’t have well covered already. However, even the products that have innovations are faring poorly. I would argue they are faring more poorly than honeycomb devices.
Honestly, I am not sure where the problem lies. I am sure of one thing: the iPad line of tablets will continue to dominate this market for the foreseeable future.
Best Buy’s numbers? A few TV ads aside there hasn’t been any serious marketing campaign. If you asked the average person what an HP TouchPad is, most people wouldn’t know. But Woot’s numbers? This again? The same kind of people that visit Woot are the people who pay attention to tech blogs. And the big story right as Woot was selling the TouchPads was that Staples was selling them for $300, and some OfficeMax and Office Depots were price-matching on them. So I ask you: if you’re going to buy a TouchPad, would you pay $400 or $300?
HP has just announced the euthanasia of WebOS.
Dunh dunh dunh, and another one bites the dust!
Yep – saw it on Bloomerg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/hp-said-to-be-near-10-billion-autonomy-takeover-spinoff-of-pc-business.html)
“Hewlett-Packard will discontinue its line of products running its WebOS operating system, including TouchPad tablets, the company also said in a statement today.”
It actually kind of makes me want to pick one up for sentimental reasons. Like an Apple Newton.
If I were more of a programmer, I would be sorely tempted! Particularly if the price goes down another $100-200.
I still want a TouchPad … for the right price, as you say.
I really like the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, and would still be using the Pixi if I could get my work email to ‘work’ on it …