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Research firm advises HP not to abandon the Touchpad
AN INDUSTRY RESEARCH OUTFIT has advised the maker of expensive printer ink HP to reconsider its decision to abandon its Touchpad tablet.
Canalys, a market research company founded in the UK, said that the Touchpad could double or triple the value of the PC devision that HP intends to spin off, and that therefore it should not be so keen to axe the product from its range.
"The TouchPad was overpriced at launch and did not sell. This led HP to draw a premature conclusion that the product category had failed," said Canalys, according to Reuters.
That changed, however, when HP lowered the price of the Touchpad to under $100 in many regions, causing an unexpected fire sale of the product. "The Touchpad has become the 'must-have' technology product of 2011," Canalys added. "Perhaps no other technology vendor, apart from Apple, has ever created such hype for a technology product."
Canalys believes that this excitement could help secure HP the number two slot for tablets, behind Apple and its highly successful Ipad range, but that HP's position will slip if it does not take advantage of the opportunity.
In fact, Canalys argues that the Touchpad is now the product that has gained the most interest at HP over the past decade, showing its potential strength. It said that HP could easily hold a 10 per cent market share on the basis of these kinds of sales.
The problem, of course, is the price. A 16GB version had a price tag of around $500, while the 32GB version came in at around $600, considerably more than the bargain bin prices the Touchpad has been going for lately. With HP losing as much as $400m due to its price slashing on the Touchpad, it's clear that it cannot continue to offer such a low price if it intends to remain in the tablet market.
In fact, IHS Isuppli argues that the manufacturing costs of the Touchpad come in at around $300, which means HP would have to charge at least $350 to make it worth its while, and that profit margin might not be enough to sway its mind to keep the Touchpad alive. It is also likely that such a price will turn off many would-be buyers, who might settle for something more around the $250 range, which HP obviously cannot do long term. µ
Tags: Hardware
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From a "research firm"... What kind of an idiot thinks that HP TouchPad would ever compete with the big brands, they started a desire for a tablet that had to be sold in loss, under price of BOM because it was expensive in the first place. Come on, it's a dead platform, Web OS, nobody wants it,not even Samsung or others, and hardware is subpar, with Ipad running twice as fast when installing WeOS.
Android? There are better tablets, like the Transformer or Iconia or any other cheaper tablet, but with plenty support and latest original ROM, not some XDA port. And better tablets are coming soon....