Now that the HP TouchPad tablets have sold out, everyone wants one. In July HP couldn’t sell a TouchPad tablet despite having distribution deals with Best Buy and other major retailers. Apple had sucked all the oxygen out of the tablet market while HP offered its inferior product, (inferior cause of the WebOS which lacks developer support) at the same price as the iPad. But nobody decided to go with it, making HP’s TouchPad one of the most poorly sold tablets in the history of tablet devices.
HP just needs to fire up things and strike the correct strategy, and it’s sure to work out. The iron is still hot.
But drop that price down to $100 and let people know that they better move quick to get one of the last TouchPads and the perception of scarcity kicks in. The units fly off the shelves.
In this pursuit, today, HP has announced that they will make and sell another bunch of iPads. Sounds a good deal, if you would ask me but again, its pricing is what matters. If HP decides to fail that strategy again this time, then it is going to be tough. Marketing is not a problem at all for HP now, considering the huge brand identity TouchPad has got in the recent days, thanks to the 99$ sale.
TouchPads are going for about $300 on ebay right now, which also just happens to be about the manufacturing cost of the TouchPad. And CyanogenMod is already out on TouchPad, Android 2.2 has been ported and the WebOS community has gone suddenly active again. At this stage, HP just needs to fire up things and strike the correct strategy, and it’s sure to work out. The iron is still hot.
With all this good luck coming in to HP, WebOS still seems an interesting platform for developers and end users considering the amazing web browser and multitasking features it offers. If HP could make use of this time and bring about a change in the way WebOS is seen in the eyes of the public, which it already has, to an extent, we could see WebOS being born again, all new and fresh.
Only time will decide its future. Let’s wait and watch. What Say ?
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