∞ HP discontinues TouchPad after less than two months

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If you were thinking about an HP TouchPad instead of the iPad, don’t bother. HP announced Thursday that it is discontinuing operations for webOS devices, including the TouchPad and webOS phones.

“The devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.”

The TouchPad has been on the market for less than two months; it debuted in early July. The tablet device met with criticism upon its release for being slow and for having very limited software capabilities. HP responded by offering an over-the-air system software update that it said alleviated many of the performance issues, but it was too little, too late.

HP then tried to drop the price of the TouchPad by $100 to make it less expensive than the iPad, but that didn’t work either; reports surfaced that indicated that electronics retailer Best Buy is sitting on a huge inventory of TouchPads after selling a paltry amount.

HP’s TouchPad news comes amidst third quarter earnings. The company has also indicated its intent to explore “strategic alternatives” for its Personal Systems Group, including spinning off the business unit entirely. The Personal Systems Group is responsible for HP’s personal computers.

HP also says it has acquired Autonomy Corp., an enterprise software developer that it says will enable it to offer cloud-based services for business. The deal is valued at $10.2 billion.


  • Matt

    “The tablet effect is real.” -Leo Apotheker

    The truth is the iPad has so drastically changed personal computers that the number one seller of PC is getting out of the game.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Holy kittens.

  • His Shadow

    This makes me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh.

     Whats the new meme already on the message boards? Draconian Apple is now free to be more Draconian because competition is effectively dead in the tablet space. Which of course means Apple will stagnate and the iPad will get no new hardware or features because there is no competitive pressure on Apple to improve the iPad. As if the pressure from competitors is what pushed the iPod development.

    • Anonymous

      This is a good thing! Once the “fake-competition” is dead, Apple can focus their resources on supply & improved function of their devices. The next iPad release will finish off the rest, but the iPad 2 is so good it will continue to blow them away until then.

  • STL

    Where is mangochutney?mangochutney 1 week ago”I have no doubt in my mind that HP will replace the first TouchPad within the next six months. They’re learning and they’re learning quick.”

    • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

      I imagine he’s fairly disappointed. He was hoping the TouchPad would lead to something viable. As did I.

  • http://twitter.com/RASTERMAN RASTERMAN

    It’s a shame really.  Had the iPad not existed, I would have undoubtably considered a TouchPad.

    —RASTER

    • Anonymous

      Had the iPad not existed, there would have been no TouchPad because nobody else would have thought that there was any money in tablets.

      • Player_16

        Yes there would have been a Touch Pad -the HP Slate. Remember Steve Ballmer was showing them off on stage running Windows back at CES 2010. The Courier would be out about now too. That would’ve been a ‘game changer’.

        • Anonymous

          You’re kidding, right??  Or trolling??

          The Courier was never more than a design study; even MSFT admitted it.  And the HP Slate got released, got fairly good reviews as a niche Windows tablet, and completely disappeared as a mass market device.  Neither of these was significantly affected by the iPad.

          Like many have said – there’s not really a tablet market, there’s an iPad market…

          • Player_16

            Of course I’m kidding! (geeze) Had the iPad NOT existed -remember?
            Don’t get your knickers in a knot!

            Right now, it’s just a repeat of the iPod.

          • Anonymous

            Guess my irony detector was on the blink; maybe I should exchange my Android-powered one for something else :-)

  • pbGuy

    I feel a bit sorry for those who purchased a TouchPad, based upon the HP brand.

    I’m sure they feel really hosed by HP.

    • Dan Woods

      I purchased one based upon the Palm Brand. (because it was cheap and just for fun, I didn’t have any expectations of *using* the damn thing)
      Not a bad device, not quite as good as the 2010 iPad, and not even comparable to the 2011 iPad2.
      Still better than the Playbook and on par with any of the Honeycomb Tablets.

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous

    So HP is getting out of the PC business and the tablet business. The printer business finished growing long ago. So now they’re pinning their hopes (not to mention $10B) on “cloud-based services for business”? That’s just ludicrous. Do they have drug-addled monkeys making the decisions over there?

    It’s profoundly saddening. HP used to be a great American company that made quality equipment. I work in a research lab and we have tons of vintage HP devices that are still solid and dependable thirty years after they were made. 

    It’s good Bill and Dave aren’t alive to see what a travesty their company has become.

  • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous

    P.S. I’m glad Gruber pulled out the quote from Eric Candor: “In the tablet world, we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.”

    Someone should have told him that number one plus is actually number two.

  • Anonymous

    Business computing mentality trying to compete in the consumer world. Apple has plenty of time to understand the market, these other guys are trying a scatter gun approach in a world they don’t understand!

  • Anonymous

    I feel sorry for all the Palm folks who thought HP was their shining knight. The irony is that Leo’s vision of a cloud-based future for HP is a perfect play for a tablet client……  

  • Anonymous

    Just realized that the TouchPad is matched by MSFT’s Kin by being axed just 7 weeks after their very expensive introductions. They MUST have known at launch that this was going to get killed off. WOW.

    • Dan Woods

      They sold a few more than the Kin though. Did the Kin sell 25,000?

  • Anonymous

    Funny how things work out.

    Steve Jobs said in his recent address to the Cupertino City Council that he got his first job at 13 from Mr. Hewlett, himself.

    The old man must be turning in his grave over the state of his company these days.

    Well, at least the powers that be have enough integrity to know when something isn’t working and move on.

    • Anonymous

      Apple’s HQ is on HP’s old grounds. Now he’s “gutted” his old bosses legacy! Better to quit now then face embarrassment in the near future.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    They never gave it a chance to build either a developer community or a market presence. Released it before it was ready, and cancelled it like a summer-replacement sitcom.

    • Anonymous

      Given how this played out, it would seem it was setup for failure the moment Hurd left and Apotheker took over.  Buying Palm and putting WebOS everywhere was Hurd’s legacy.  Apotheker obviously didn’t share that vision but was financially committed “give it a try”.  They shipped a bug ridden product that simply wasn’t ready for market.  Barely one month after introduction, the product is cancelled.  This tells me the product was doomed before it started.  Apotheker has a background in software/services and is trying to remake HP into something more like IBM / Oracle / SAP.  That’s what he knows.  He doesn’t understand consumer markets, etc.  The TouchPad and HP’s PC business are simply just a casualty of Apotheker’s new “vision” for HP’s future.

      • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

        I miss the real HP.

  • Anonymous

    Apple’s list of companies they’ve killed is getting longer every month. The death of HP’s PC business is very surprising. Who knew the Mac’s growth was so devastating to the competition. Apple’s doing this with mostly MacBook’s, iMac’s & Mac-Mini’s. Once, Google releases “Ice-Cream Sandwich” (expect delays), phone, tablet, mp3 devices will be under one category: Mobile-PC’s. Making iOS + OS X Lion the largest PC company. HP probably knew this & decided to bail, before things got really out of hand. The rest of the hard-headed managers will probably watch their business’ die before they do what HP just did. I wonder who’s next? The so-called “competition” will be responsible for the “one-company, one-device” era! Mark my words! iCal it even!

    • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

      But that’s just it. Apple hasn’t “killed” anybody. They did it to themselves. Late understanding, poor planning, half-assed execution, and obtuse marketing.

    • http://www.theuniversalsteve.com Anonymous

      I don’t see how you can say Apple is killing the Windows PC market with MacBooks, iMacs, and Mac Minis. They’re in a completely different price point. It’s like saying Volvo put Yugo out of business. The Windows PC market has been a race to the bottom for years. HP finally decided that it’s not a race they want to continue running.