

Dear HP: Please Keep Making Those TouchPads - ayanb
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/23/dear-hp-please-keep-making-those-touchpads/

======
Steko
Large amounts of unintended irony in this piece featuring tablet advice from
Arrington ( _red flag_ ) that amounts to "HP should sell large numbers of
hardware for low margin".

You mean, just like the PC business they're trying to exit? And the console
business that can't shoot straight because the era of $60 apps is fading fast?

Because you know, Best Buy is super excited to buy tablets from HP for just
under $200 and retail them for $200 while being shut out of the
app/ad/bandwidth/content ecosystem.

To make an ecosystem only strategy work today I think you need to have your
own distribution network and HP isn't really in a position to burn bridges
with Best Buy over the rounding error that is their tablet business.

~~~
davidedicillo
I agree with you, beside the Best Buy comment. They already operate with small
margins for the hardware, where they make most of the money is selling you all
the other crap with it, from the case for your brand new tablet to a 3 year
extended warranty.

------
acabal
I don't think people bought the TouchPads because they wanted a low-quality
"couch surfing" device; they bought them because they knew it was an
incredible price for the hardware, and with all the media hype happening, they
had to buy them before they ran out and then figure out a use for them later.

Even _I_ was considering buying one, and I _knew_ I would have played with it
for half an hour and then never touched it again.

~~~
macrael
I'm with you, I think that if the Touchpad had launched at a $99 price, it
would not have flown off the shelves the way that it has these last few days.
Part of the reason people are buying them is that it is their last hurrah, no
Touchpads will ever be made again. There is a very real novelty factor there.
On top of that, it is not just a $99 tablet, but rather a $400 savings.

~~~
ja27
Borders stores were packed during liquidation sales, despite the fact that
there were few real bargains to be found. People love a perceived bargain.

------
kloncks
It seems I'm in the minority here, but I really like what Arrington is saying.

People will pay $100-$200 for a dedicated eBook reader. As much as I love my
iPad, it does come with a few extra things that one doesn't necessarily need.
There's room in the market for a $200 tablet from a consumer point. I have no
idea if it makes sense from the manufacturer's point of view, though.

That said, this recently created space [cheaper tablets] has started to be
dominated by Android tablets. Can webOS find a place there? I don't know. But
I think it will have a greater chance of taking on this market than the $500
range overwhelmingly handled by Apple's iPad.

 _edit: if they go as cheap as chips and hardware + a little more, they can
also have a huge impact on basic tablets used for education, etc. in my dream
world, techcrunch somehow licenses webOS and makes the CrunchPad once and for
all._

 _double edit: in the comments someone suggested subsidizing the tablet device
to lower its cost and making it up using app sales or a subscription. think
game consoles. that would be interesting._

~~~
andrem
Why will "people" pay that? I know it's cheaper than the kindle. Apart from
the novelty factor though, why would anyone pay that much for a device to read
books?

I have a 2003 version of an actual ebook reader with a passive screen. If all
you are after is an ebook reader I am sure these things would sell for $20 at
the most and you could make a happy profit. What a bargain eh?

The problem is that the market is not driven by people's desires, but rather
by moneymakers' profits. If we can't make 25%+ on each sale, why bother?

~~~
tel
I'm confused, the TouchPad is cheaper than a Kindle, true, but the Kindle has
demonstrated that there's a huge market for $100-150 eBook readers. The
TouchPad just isn't the right product.

------
nl
7" Capacitive (Android) tablets are already under $200:
<http://s.dealextreme.com/search/capacitive+android+tablet>

These aren't crappy, low powered devices, either. Take this one:
[http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-capacitive-screen-
android-2-3...](http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-capacitive-screen-
android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wifi-hdmi-otg-3d-acceleration-1-2ghz-4gb-72878). It is
Android 2.3, 1.2Ghz processor, HDMI out, etc etc. The only weakness is it is
WiFi only, but it is only $166.

There are still supply constraints around larger 9" & 10" capacitive screens,
but 7" screens are getting cheap enough now that it's possible 7" capacitive
tablets will drop below $100 by the end of the year (depending on the exchange
rate though..)

------
foobarbazetc
WebOS is a terrible, flawed, slow as molasses OS.

WebOS will _never_ gain traction because apps on it will always be much slower
than native compiled apps on iOS or even JITed apps on Android.

It's that simple. No amount of buzzword compliance is going to change that.

Just look at this benchmark:

<http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4658/40733.png>

The device/OS which relies on JavaScript performance for _everything_ is the
slowest when it comes to JavaScript performance. :) Even if they could 2-2.5x
performance, it'd still be noticeably slower than iOS or Android.

Anyone who thinks people are buying these TouchPads because they think they're
a viable product is delusional at best. People are buying them because they're
$99, and $99 doesn't buy you much these days.

~~~
revorad
That's why I want one to test my web apps, keeping in line with yesterday's
discussion - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911935>.

But I haven't seen any fire sales here in the UK. The cheapest I've found is
for ~£160 on ebay from people who bought the $99 ones in the US.

~~~
danlove
Dixons/PC World/Curry's had one yesterday online, and in store today. Reduced
to £89 I believe.

~~~
revorad
I checked online yesterday but didn't see any reduced prices. I called Curry's
just now and they had a recorded message saying they've sold out. I can't
believe I missed it!

~~~
robin_reala
I think I got one on Dabs earlier before they sold out (got a confirmation
email but whether they had any stock is another matter). Your best bet is
play.com, who haven’t lowered their prices yet but probably will.

------
ayanb
Fire sales always have a novelty. Its not so much the price point but the
innate human desire to pick up things at a price they otherwise could not have
afforded or wanted to.

------
fpgeek
translation:

Dear HP: Please Keep Burning Money For Our Entertainment

~~~
rbanffy
With HP focusing on enterprisey software, it'll never again be as entertaining
to watch.

But I trust somehow reason will once more shine its light onto HP's board,
that they will fire this idiot and abandon his silly idea of turning HP into
SAP.

------
ansy
I think that's called Groupon. Taking billions of dollars of investor money
and tying it up with no hope of making a single dime. You'll get millions of
users and entrench yourself deeper and deeper in a broken business model.

------
zmmmmm
Dear Techcrunch,

Android tablets will soon be sub-$200 and will come in any number of form
factors, styles and configurations using an OS that actually has a chance of
long term support. In fact if all you want is a web browsing device they are
there already and have been for a while.

~~~
Macha
Dear zmmmmm,

But they are using an OS that is competing directly with Apple and are
therefore bad. Even if they do everything we just said we wanted for the price
we said we want.

Yours, Techcrunch (especially MG Siegler).

------
smoody
"But one thing I was very right on is the huge demand for a less expensive
tablet computer"

Arrington should be a futurist/ecomonist, not a op/ed writer -- after all, he
was "very right" with this prediction! :-)

But, IMHO, I think he was very wrong that Crunchpads would have flown off the
shelves. Brand names matter to consumers when it comes to consumer electronics
(do you hear anyone talk about the notionink Adam anymore?). You can find a
$200 tablet out there if you want to, but I don't see a lot of people looking
beyond the brands they already trust for a solution.

------
neovive
The TouchPad will make a great economics case study for price elasticity of
demand (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand>). I'm sure
someone has already worked out a model somewhere.

------
SoupIce
There is the WeTab which is in that price range with a GNU/Linux on it. MeeGo.

------
nazgulnarsil
dumbass.

[http://arnovatech.com/products/arn_10/index.html?country=us&...](http://arnovatech.com/products/arn_10/index.html?country=us&lang=en)

people's ability to refuse to do a 30 second google search before they spout
crap continues to amaze me.

~~~
clarkevans
I didn't realize a company was offering Android tablets, $199 for 10" and $99
for 7". That's quite cool. Thank you for posting the link.

