
Why The Undead $99 TouchPad Might Portend The iPad's Doom - diogenescynic
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2011/08/30/why-the-undead-99-touchpad-might-portend-the-ipads-doom/?partner=yahootix
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brk
Give me a break.

This is horribly poor reporting and speculation for Forbes.

HP is almost literally giving these things away, and it took a $99 price point
before anyone gave 2 shits about it. From the comments I've seen online, these
are being purchased by geeks to "hack" on, people who think they're getting a
deal, and consumers to uneducated to understand they are basically purchasing
a very expensive paperweight. None of these demographics are Apple's core
business.

Additionally, there is no evidence that a loss-leader style tablet market has
much merit, the one _possible_ exception being Amazon since they have a
reseller ecosystem setup that can rival Apple in some cases.

All this whole HP tablet giveaway really says right now is that WebOS,
Android, Blackberry, etc. have not been able to create a device as elegant,
compelling and profitable as the iPad.

Apple _created_ the tablet market, and now everything that comes out is
compared to it on all aspects. Consumers are trained to expect something both
better and cheaper as the next thing, and so far that product has not emerged.

