Doug's Mailbag: HP's Tablet Saga
Readers chime in on HP's handling of its webOS-based tablet:
The popularity of the $100 HP TouchPad should speak volumes to any (non-Apple) tablet maker. If you want to compete with Apple in the tablet market you cannot charge Apple prices!
HP's most recent statements demonstrate that HP wants to be more like IBM than like Dell. It want out of the commodity/consumer PC/tablet market. Fine. Let it spin off (or sell) that business.
It will be up to that new PC/tablet unit to decide how to compete against Dell and the others. In any event, you cannot compete against Apple at Apple price points.
-Marc
Perhaps HP's plan all along was to have a 'fire sale.' Maybe it figured it would generate a media blitz causing partners like Best Buy to sell the tablets at what's probably a loss for them, and then say, 'hey look at all the demand!' If so that's a pretty lousy way to treat your partners and the market. I'm waiting to see the Win 8 tablets before I decide whether to buy that or an iPad.
-Anonymous
You know, HP makes some great printers, but they should stick to that. They are second probably only to Roxio at having the worst software experiences around. It takes an act of congress to get its printer or other software and drivers to install -- much less resolve a problem with one. I have one HP fax that gets its software blown every couple of weeks whenever there are a group of software updates that come along. I have to keep the installation CD on my desk all the time. Its software always seems to interfere with all my other software. I really hope it just get out of the software market, or find another party that will do a good job for it.
-LB
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/12/2011 at 1:18 PM