HP TouchPad Apocalypse Revelations

On Thursday, the IT industry detonated a blockbuster. Hewlett-Packard, the world’s No. 1 PC seller, announced that it had abandoned its own flat panel product, WebOS, and shut down its PC business. It is widely speculated that HP is foreseeing its inability to compete with the Apple iPad and many Android tablets. Counterbalanced, so early surrender was announced.

After this news release, HP made a staggering move: The Tablet PC's TouchPad series, which it just launched, will be sold off the floor. The 16GB version of the TouchPad will be priced down from the original 399.99 US dollars to 99.99 US dollars; the 32GB version of the TouchPad will be priced from 499.99 US dollars lowered to 149.99 US dollars. This move immediately led to looting, making last weekend's TouchPad's sales finally caught up with the Apple iPad, has sold off the goods on Best Buy, and became Amazon's top sales.

While everyone is paying attention to HP's broken wrist action, the market reaction highlighted here is also worth considering.

1. The reason why WebOS is not to be seen is that the root cause is the flaw of the system itself, and this defect can only attract very few developers to develop various applications on this platform. The application is the soul of tablet computers. The reason why the Apple iPad and many Android tablets are so popular is because millions of applications on these two platforms make consumers linger. This issue is crucial when major companies promote their own systems.

2. Why does HP's jump price beat Apple's iPad? The price plays a key part in it. Look at the market, in addition to Apple's other major manufacturers of flat products, and both are equivalent to the performance and iPad even beyond, the price is almost the same with the iPad, and some even higher. Look at a set of figures: Apple iPad 2 (16G/WIFI version) price of 3688 yuan, Samsung Tablet GALAXY Tab P7510 (16GB) price of 3688 yuan, ASUS Tablet Iconia Tab A500 (32G) price of 3500 yuan, MOTO tablet XOOM sale Price 4588 yuan, Legend Music Pad (32GB) price 3400 yuan, Dell flat Streak 10 Pro price of 2999 yuan. At the same price level, consumers will of course choose the more famous apple if you can't bring them more. If the price is right, consumers will also abandon the iPad into other arms. Perhaps flat panel makers should think about it and take a different path than the iPad, rather than hard-fought performance and price, in order to break the current situation where Apple dominates the party.