Poll: HP TouchPad - $99 in US - any sign of UK drop?

[Evilpaul]

What I don't understand is, if they were so concerned about making money back, why did they reduce the price of the TouchPad so heavily?

They decided to pull out of the phone/tablet/pc business, which would mean that all of their stock becomes almost worthless overnight. There has been a common trend where the public will not buy a product where future support/development is not guaranteed (e.g. Nokia Symbian phones).
This gave them 2 options:
1) take back the unsold stock from retailers and lose all their production and development costs
2) offer a reduced price to sell all of their remaining stock and get back some money.

They went for the second option, and this does have a secondary advantage.
By getting more webOS device into peoples hands (reportedly about 1 million devices), they have made themselves an ecosystem. This gives them more leverage if they decide to license webOS and get other companies to make devices.

 

[korbk]

They decided to pull out of the phone/table/pc business, which would mean that all of their stock becomes almost worthless overnight. There has been a common trend where the public will not buy a product where future support/development is not guaranteed (e.g. Nokia Symbian phones).
This gave them 2 options:
1) take back the unsold stock from retailers and lose all their production and development costs
2) offer a reduced price to sell all of their remaining stock and get back some money.

They went for the second option, and this does have a secondary advantage.
By getting more webOS device into peoples hands (reportedly about 1 million devices), they have made themselves an ecosystem. This gives them more leverage if they decide to license webOS and get other companies to make devices.

That does make sense, but I still think they could have got away with a smaller discount. Glad they didn't, even though I never managed to get one.

 

[EZTARGET]

reportedly about 1 million devices

Citation? I would be really interested that they had that many devices in peoples hands.

 

[Evilpaul]

Citation? I would be really interested that they had that many devices in peoples hands.

do I look like wikipedia?.....



edit:
this guesses at around 500000 devices based just on american sales figures
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/201...-slash-price-inventory-best-buy-retailers.htm

Rest of the World sales should significantly bump that number towards 1 million

 

[Big_Ted]

do I look like wikipedia?.....



edit:
this guesses at around 500000 devices based just on american sales figures
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/201...-slash-price-inventory-best-buy-retailers.htm

Rest of the World sales should significantly bump that number towards 1 million

I don't think anyone really knows how many, I have seen reports of 2 million,......

 

[Archduke]

For those of you looking for the pre3 keep an eye on CPW as they have a deal for it at £10.49 free handset http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/HP-PRE3/MONTHLY?portal=BUYAT&promo=hotukdeals and available for delivery http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/buy/HP-PRE3-TB10T-FCON

Also have read rumours cpw bought the job lot of them off HP

I think a strategic mistake by CPW, £10.50/month for 24months and get a "free" Pre3 does not seem very attractive to me.

It's a big clunky phone with very few apps/games.

 

[garyfl]

Posting from my tou.. Samsung galaxy tab 10.1

 

[EZTARGET]

Yeah, I million doesn't sounds that much does it. 20 million iPhone 4s and 9 million iPads THIS LAST QUARTER.

 

[korbk]

Posting from my tou.. Samsung galaxy tab 10.1

How are you finding it?

 

[garyfl]

I dont regret a single thing, obviously i cant compare this to the touchpad, but this is one truelly stunning piece of kit, i believe it uses the oled screen so the colours are bright and vibrant. Its VERY fast and such a doddle to use, the most stylish implementation of android 3 yet wnd i tried all the devices out in store and fell in love with this one

 

[mithrandir]

What I don't understand is, if they were so concerned about making money back, why did they reduce the price of the TouchPad so heavily?

It's a great tactical move from HP. Nintendo and Sega done this with the SNES and Megadrive systems respectively. They heavily reduced the price of the hardware so users would buy the console then they would then need to buy the games. Since all the touchpads have been manufactured it's makes more business sense to shift it whilst the tech is still hot and bring WebOS to the masses and more people aware of the OS and the enthusiasts will develop more apps/software for WebOS.

Shame I couldn't join in the fun

I think I'm going back to looking for a Cortex based tablet with gingerbread.

 

[soundb0y]

Russ which stores in Bris did you see the touchstones? May go and grab one tomorrow if there are any left.

 

[PhillyDee]

Get me one if you can! I have money waiting.

 

[Archduke]

I dont regret a single thing, obviously i cant compare this to the touchpad, but this is one truelly stunning piece of kit, i believe it uses the oled screen so the colours are bright and vibrant. Its VERY fast and such a doddle to use, the most stylish implementation of android 3 yet wnd i tried all the devices out in store and fell in love with this one

It's not OLED it's called IPS-LCD.

The iPad2 uses similar technology but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is probably better.


The HP Touchpad uses IPS-LCD as well, I don't think it's quite as good though.

 

[teaboy5]

There must be gps in the wifi versions, as it has picked me up where ever i go and it's not linked to the phone etc.

 

[Jono8]

It's not OLED it's called IPS-LCD.

The iPad2 uses similar technology but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is probably better.


The HP Touchpad uses IPS-LCD as well, I don't think it's quite as good though.

I thought the Touchpad had pretty much the same screen as he iPad 2?

 

[Jono8]

There must be gps in the wifi versions, as it has picked me up where ever i go and it's not linked to the phone etc.

Yes there definitely is. It pin points my exact location within about 5 metres on the map app.

 

[teaboy5]

Yes there definitely is. It pin points my exact location within about 5 metres on the map app.

pitty it uses MS maps lol

 

[Jono8]

pitty it uses MS maps lol

indeed

 

[Raikiri]

I dont regret a single thing, obviously i cant compare this to the touchpad, but this is one truelly stunning piece of kit, i believe it uses the oled screen so the colours are bright and vibrant. Its VERY fast and such a doddle to use, the most stylish implementation of android 3 yet wnd i tried all the devices out in store and fell in love with this one

It doesn't use OLED, a 10.1" OLED would cost more than the tablet. Uses IPS like all the other high end tablets