“Former Palm CEO and current HP executive Jon Rubenstein sent a letter to employees addressing lukewarm reviews of its new TouchPad tablet, and suggested that criticism of its webOS operating system is similar to complaints reviewers had with early versions of Mac OS X,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
The letter from Rubinstein, who is senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Palm Global Business Unit, came in response to reviews that characterized the newly launched TouchPad as a ‘mediocre tablet,'” Oliver reports. “Reviewers were impressed with the look of the TouchPad, but took issue with the device’s weight, bugs, and lack of applications.”
MacDailyNews Take: Reviewers must have been impressed with the look of the TouchPad because it looks just like a really thick iPad. More great originality from a bunch of printer ink peddlers.
Dear Apple legal dept., looks like you have yet another valid case of trade dress infringement should you desire to pursue it.
Oliver reports, “He then shared a trio of quotes from reviews from a different piece of software that launched more than 10 years ago: Apple’s own Mac OS X operating system. Those early reviews characterized the software as ‘sluggish,’ without any ‘quality apps,’ and ‘just not making sense.’ ‘It’s hard to believe those statements described Mac OS X — a platform that would go on to change the landscape of Silicon Valley in ways that no one could have imagined,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With Mac OS X there was a need for a superior desktop OS, and, get this, an audience of millions of Mac users ready and waiting.
Just as with iPod, there is no need for a “superior” iPad. Just as with iPod, the only maker of superior iPads will be Apple. Someone ought to tell John Rubinstein, wheel re-inventor. You’d think, by now, he’d have figured it out.
Other than hopelessly-outclassed tech companies, a handful of Apple castoffs, and some tech magazines who like to concoct “shootouts,” exactly who’s crying out for iPad knockoffs? Nobody. Not in any meaningful numbers.
This whole thing is iPod redux: A bunch of inferior junk in search of Apple’s table scraps. HP’s quest to become the San Disk of tablets ought to be an embarrassment to a company where “invent” actually meant something a very long time ago.
I guess HP troop have zero self-awareness and zero motivation so that they need Mr. Rubinstein to “comfort and motivate them”. hmm…
O’ man, Mr. Rubinstein really inspire a lot confident within HP. If any HP employee is reading this post, I highly suggest all of you to start network with headhunters NOW!!
Spot on take, MDN 🙂
=:~)
… and just think, the first Harry Potter movie – the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001. The first book was published in 1997.
… Yet Mac OS X seems to have been around much longer.
DEW-dead executive walking!
I saw a post yesterday from a person who claimed that he was interested in the HP tablet “because it was not from Apple.” This contrarian contingent is the main voice clamoring for a viable alternative to the iPad. May they receive what they deserve.
I am a fan of healthy competition – the type that drives quality and functionality forward and improves the user experience. If HP and others can do so fairly, without copying Apple’s protected IP, then bring it on! The problem for HP and others is that Apple entered (essentially created) the tablet market with a high quality unit at a very reasonable price. As a result, Apple rapidly generated a large market for the iPad and now enjoys large economies of scale in component acquisition through manufacturing and distribution. Add in the physical and online Apple storefronts, and you have a juggernaut that no one has begun to touch.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the faux-pad market: The product dumping drastic price cuts have started! I’ve noticed today $50 off sales on both the Motorola XOON 10.1″ and (already!) the Blackberry Playbook faux-pads. Same old story. Better luck next year.
Although WebOs is nowhere near the achievement of OS X and to equate the the two seems delusional. Remember this was an internal communication intended to keep up the morale of the troops and as such seems like a reasonable comment to make, if I were on the WebOs team, it would probably make me feel better about myself.