Thursday, August 18, 2011

H.P. gives up tablet business (updated)

H.P. Plans Big Shift Toward Business Customers, article.
H.P. also said it would kill off its TouchPad tablet, which was just introduced in June and was meant to compete with the iPad from Apple, and stop making mobile phones that use the webOS operating system, which H.P. picked up when it bought Palm.

Wow. That's gotta be an expensive wasted adventure!
And some people saw HP as one of the golden hopes of good competition for iPad, because they are one of the few companies which make both the hardware and the software. The Touchpad has many great reviews on Amazon*, but it was up against not just the iPad but the Android company crowd too.

I've noticed this happens much faster these day, yeah? Microsoft for instance, this phone they brought out last year, Blip or Kit or something, they cancelled it like six weeks after it had been released! I'm not sure if this is a a healthy trend, or a symptom of an illness, perhaps of companies' lack of sound judgement whether they can compete in a given market or not. Like I said half a year ago, 80 different tablets being announced in January was just ridiculous, only the biggest companies stand any chance of competing against the iPad, and even those have a mighty struggle on their hands. For a small company, it's like watching a toddler on a trike heading out to fight a tank invasion.

*This is probably skewed by it being a niche product, though. Those tend to get bought only by people who know what they're getting, while broad, hit products get bought by everybody, so get much more mixed reviews and a lower average.

Update:
Other companies are going the other way: slashing prices.
Some tablets could be offered for as little as $300, which would represent a significant loss for the manufacturers, but some money is better than piles of devices that eventually get chopped up and sold to recyclers.
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10 comments:

TC [Girl] said...

Yup! Heard about it, firsthand, today! Prob much better than a "slow death!" They see they missed the first leg of the race, so...hanging it up! I think it's a wise business move; will teach them to be quicker to move w/the trends or...get out of the way! It's quite CRAZY how quickly technology is whizzing from one format to another these days, anyway! I think you're right: there won't be many standing, after awhile! :-/ The pace and...the cost; will be interesting to see what - if any - industry will survive in this nation, the way things are going! :-(

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, the West in general will have to pick up the haunches to compete with the Work Ethic of the East.

"Post-industrial countries", odd.

TC [Girl] said...

Too funny: I commented on just what you wrote (I was going to go back and read the article, later) and...just, now, went in to the article to see what you were referring to re: the "post-industrial" bit. Found it quite humorous that BOTH this article and Bowie's/Iggy's interview talked about the shift of "consumer tastes." Funny, hey? Works for both technology *and* music! But...the ODDS of that happening on the SAME NIGHT; now...that was...ODD!!! lol! :-D

Gees...after only two months, though... Sure not giving peeps much of a chance to try the silly thing out! Too bad! :-(

TC [Girl] said...
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TC [Girl] said...
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TC [Girl] said...

Perhaps it was just on the "guest writer" article as I got "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author." :-(

Just wanted to share this which seemed kind of interesting.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It's strange, I don't think I've ever had moderation turned on here.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Interesting article, thanks.

TC [Girl] said...

It seemed that it was on the guest-written posting (and the 2 attempts that I had made to post were just "released" (by you?) a few minutes ago) so, perhaps, the setting had been chosen for that one; I don't know. I just know that, after I tried to post it, the message came up and, huh...I actually see it below this-here comment window, now, but, oddly, I was able to post on this posting.

So...after the above happened, I jumped over here to see if I had been "locked out" of this posting, as well, for some reason. (perhaps it was because of the timing that I thought this) :-(

TC [Girl] said...

"Funny"/strange: this time, it didn't allow my comment to show and...there's a message, up top, that reads: "your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval." :-) (and, as I mentioned, before, the "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author." is still showing just below this window.)