

HP to produce 100,000-200,000 TouchPads to clear out supplier inventories - j_col
http://www.precentral.net/digitimes-hp-produce-100-000-200-000-touchpads-clear-out-supplier-inventories

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KevinEldon
HP says they're getting ready to spin off or sell their PC division. According
to this article that would be mean the new company or the acquiring company
would: \- Be the #1 PC manufacturer \- Be the #2 tablet manufacturer \- Have a
1 million installed base for WebOS \- Have taken 1 million customers away from
their competitors who at least in the Android space seem to be struggling a
bit

That's a pretty compelling story especially if this new entity can capitalize
on it with more management and sales autonomy, focus, and agility. I'm not
saying everything about this strategic change is pretty, but I'd wait before
calling this a failure.

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j_col
I completely agree with all of your points, and I think that a lot of people
are missing the point of just how disruptive HP have been in all of this, in
terms of mopping up tablet users with the cheap Touchpad who would have
otherwise opted to buy a cheap Android tablet. Amazon for one, must be furious
with HP given that this fire-sale happened on the eve of their $250 tablet
launch, especially given that the Touchpad makes a sweet Kindle device.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with this spin-off entity, and
indeed, what it will be called (anyone taking bets on Compaq or Palm making a
come back)?

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epo
So is this company run by 13-year olds? They just can a product line without
thinking through the consequences?

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schiptsov
Hardware is cheap, software is expensive nowadays. And software was the cause
of failure.

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ra
Actually no, the touchpad processor was below par. WebOS / Enyo is a great
tablet OS.

The real problem was HP (the new HP) just wasn't commited to WebOS.

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schiptsov
No one needs yet another Android today. Especially investing it its
development. The game is over. Google won. ^_^

Update: the key words here are _today_ and _investing_.

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ugh
In the tablet market Android is still pretty invisible. Saying that it won is
just wrong, at least for the tablet market. It might win in the future but it
certainly hasn’t yet.

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schiptsov
OK, lets name some names. Kindle. Nook. Galaxy Tab. Xoom. All those Japanese,
Korean and Chinese vendors who're trying to catch.

~~~
ugh
Keep up, not catch. That’s doable.

~~~
schiptsov
Oh I get it, it's very clever.

Consider what will happen in a not so long run when the money spent by
companies behind those brands start to work in full swing.

~~~
ugh
Oh wise prophet, tell me more about what you are seeing!

