“The TouchPad is dead, but Hewlett-Packard is giving it a hell of a wake. HP has slashed the price of its $399 tablet computer to $99 after killing the product on Thursday, sparking a buying frenzy,” Brian Caulfield reports for Forbes.
“Don’t do it. That’s because tablets are all about apps. There are just few hundred apps available for the TouchPad, compared to more than 100,000 iOS apps that have been optimized for the iPad and more than 1,000 for tablets running Android (and that figure doesn’t count the several hundred thousand apps built originally for phones that can also run on these devices),” Caulfield writes. “Worse yet, with HP killing its entire WebOS product line, there’s no reason to believe more are coming.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Save your hunge to put towards your iPad 3 like the sane people do.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]
I bought one. It’s next to my iPad. What’s a hundred bucks? It’s at least a toy.
That’s what my wife said about her dilld….
Heh
Your wife called. She wants one. The dd broke
Same here! I just wanted to experience webOS and see the differences between the two. So far, the TouchPad has been a challenge to say the least. Just getting the system update has taken at least a dozen tries. I m trying to be patient since I only spent $100 on it. The only bright spot is Flash does work decently for videos on the TP. This is what I will mainly use it for- to surf the web and watch flash videos.
At least you can wipe it clean after use ;o)
What’s a hundred bucks?! Wow. Someone needs a little financial hardship in their life to gains a bit of perspective.
$99 is a great price for a paperweight.
Instant Antique Road Show curiosity.
much rather get an itunes gift card but thanks.
+1
…or an TV
wiser investment!
For just web browsing and email its a good deal. iPad might have 100,000 apps but most of it are junk just like Windows apps.
What a dumb thing to say!
Awww an upset WebOS fanboy. LOL
Simple is kind of right…..there’s some pretty dumb apps out there. But the 75% of the apps are good, and that makes up for the trash ones.
Feeling buyers remorse on your 99 dollars already?
Funny to hear someone say that since Mac users have been saying that for years about Windows v Mac apps.
Except in this case, it’s not really true. I’d bet a pretty high percentage of WebOS apps were iOS apps first.
i want one, please send me one.
I could see getting one for my 14 year old…but he’d probably get frustrated from it being so slow and awkward.
That’s why even $50 is too much.
They may go down to $50
Dont do it! The 14 year olds that I know are very tech and brand savvy. If I was a 14 year old I would be very disappointed by a defunct HP touchPad and not an iPad.
Take it from a guy who was 14 when he bought his first iPad. I would hate the touchpad. I tried it out and it was super laggy and didn’t work well.
Im 16 and I have a touchpad. My mom has an iPad and I also have an iPhone. I think the touchpad is fine for web browsing. I still think the iPad is better at pretty much everything but for 99$ why not just get it?
To see what I can do with it? I wouldnt mess with my iPad, but if I can get ahold of one, I will just to see what I can do to F*** with it…
For $100, I don’t care if I wreck it..
this was my thought also.
I almost got one. but I played with one first…. good thing i didn’t buy it.
VERY slow and unresponsive. Granted it may have been the Demo model I played with, but it was real bad..
and as Kerrigor said below, there WAS a frenzy for it. I highly doubt you can even find one now. HP in less than a day I bet sold the entire stock they had left… at a loss but still.
I’d NEVER replace my iPad 2 with a POS like the TouchPad.. or some POS Android crap either.. But I still wouldn’t mind picking up some cheap android tablet for S&G’s, exactly like you said.
Don’t you mean S&M? I thought you were going to abuse the Android tablet by flogging it to death.
Yeah, it’s amazing – even just for web browsing, it is horribly slow. I too, thought something was wrong with the one I first played with (this was before it was killed and the price slashed). I checked out another one weeks later, and it too was a total dog even just doing the most basic of tasks.
Amazing that they ever thought they would get anywhere near the price of an iPad with this horrible hardware.
I work somewhere that sold these off at $99, and I can tell you, there was a very real frenzy for these. I didn’t snag one myself, though I easily could have, because I didn’t even find that I used my iPad (I’ve since sold it), but for $99 it still does a lot out of the box even if you never download an app for it or get another software update for it.
Buy it for $99, sell it on craigslist for $150. Some dumb bastard webOS fanboy will take it off your hands for crazy money.
After playing with it when they first lowered the price by a $100, I ordered one FOR a C-Note today! For someone with a dumb phone and a dilapidated iBook that’s not worth the cost of a new battery (a dead key and reboots randomly to a clock date of 1985), a no-brainer for Wi-Fi on the go.
It’ll do me for mobile i-net access (e-mail, surfing, facebooking, Mac Newz) until the iPad 3 has been out long enough to get a refurb’d one of those from Apple – and may still be worth close to what I paid. And if not, I’ll more than make it up in not paying a monthly data plan to Verizon until the iPhone 5 is readily available and wrung out.
Perhaps it could be used as a reusable Maxi-Pad 😉
Lol! Great start to a “Your mamma” joke!
I’m kind of an Apple fanboy, but have bought one fo these I have to say its actually a very nice tablet, runs very well and can do many things my iPad cannot – cheifly multitask. And please don’t give me that BS about the iPad being able to multitask – thats a bunch of marketing hype created by the Apple PR reality distortion machine. The iPad cannot multitask. I cannot have my email, twitter, a video and the browser open at the same time, switching between them without closing the instance and getting live notifications. I can do that on the Touchpad – pretty cool, huh? And like one of the other posters commented – 95% of the iPad apps are trash – there are some good ones, and there are more good ones for the iPad than for the Touchpad – but for what I use it for (reading, watching TV / Movies, twitter, blogging, surfing the web), they can both do with ease. Oh, and the Touchpad can access the full version of Hulu, not just Hulu plus!
Yeah coool I guess thats why its selling like hotcakes and they couldnt make enough so decided to stop hahahaa
Leave him alone. He’s simply making a first hand observation. Do you own both? He said he’s a fanboy (geez!) but is obviously smart enough and honest enough to see that The iPad isn’t perfect. I have owned both the iPad 1 and iPad 2 and love them. But I never used a competitors tablet. Apple, as he states, apps are a big part of the iPad success. And it’s true but it’s also true that most suck. They just started first and have more apps. It’s also cool to own an Apple product. That’s the biggest mover. And that’s because Apple can market better than anyone on earth. I use my iPad 2 daily. Hardly use my G5’s. I have been using Mac’s for more than 25 years and they have gone from cool to uncool and now back. I don’t need to buy what’s cool. But like it or not that’s what sells stuff. Apple makes great stuff but do you really think the average consumer is aware of the qualities of a computer? No. Absolutely not. The average person buys what’s selling,what people recommend and most of all, what’s cool. it’s ok to be objective. It’s ok to be honest. It’s what adults do. I commend bluejay. Even if he is a fanboy(geez!).
I commend John not bluejay. My mistake.
I’ve been around forums like these long enough to know that John is not a fanboy. Apple haters usually start their sentences with “i love apple products, and I own so many BUT… blablabla…
And no, the iPads success is not in part thanks to the apps it’s got. The apps are EVERYTHING. Specialy the iTunes app, ibooks , iPod etc.. get it ? The iPad isn’t perfect ? it’s Fukn perfect my friend. I seriously cannot think of a single way to make it better, except for maybe a retina display and whatever apple invents in the future.
Hey dopey, read his post. He says he’s a fanboy! Apple hater? Me? Please. You are such a dope. As I said, apps are a big part of the success but not the only thing. And it’s especially not specially. You’re an illiterate dope to boot! Ha ,ha,ha!!!
You sound like someone who hangs around forums all day. schoolyard closed?
Exactly. This John kid doesn’t have a TouchPad or an iPad. He is sitting infront of his Dell computer running Windows XP and just hates anything apple.
Actually it’s bluejay who’s the dope with no iPad or Touch Pad. Hey, kids living in mom’s basement. What do you expect?
with battery life at 2 hours… (if that)
and you obviously do NOT have an iPad, cause what you said… is wrong. cause you can.
and BTW… the full version of Hulu plus… that IS NOT AN APPLE RESTRICTION…… thats HULU’s licensing restrictions.
Blame Apple for your ignorance… nice.
the only thing i DID like about the Touchpad when i played with it.. the little ripple effect when you touched the screen, nice touch but I bet that over time i’d probably get annoyed with it.
In the end, HP knew it wasn’t worth supporting.. at least they were smart enough to see it quickly and not bleed cash trying to push crapware off onto the consumer.
Some bought into the Hype…. most realized the mistake.
your statement is complete delusional bullshit. PR is convincing tech geeks that true multitasking is a requirement to have a movie running in the background while I respond to an email or whatever. Good luck having two things open side by side and dealing with both on a 10″ screen. Utter bullshit. My iPad multitasking perfectly thank you. Mail, music, whatever. An if I need to attend to an email my IPad is polite enough to pause the movie for me until I return.
Time to think different. This true multitasking is the marketing doublespeak. All the devices with supposed multi tasking are having their ass handed to them. In other words, try to create a supposed advantage you have over an iPad to try to convince some tech geek he needs it. LOL!
Well said. The truth shall set you free. I’ve been a hard core computer user for ever and the iOS model of multitasking is great for 99% of all life situations. Really.
Multitasking is doing more things less.
uh-uh…..any post that starts out with something like…”i’m kind of an apple fanboy (although in this case reads like a fangirl, and not of apple)…or…”i am a HUGE apple fan, but…”
and goes on to read like a promo from the losing product, including things like… “I can do that on the Touchpad – pretty cool, huh?” (like I’m pretty hip, huh, using ‘cool’ in my revue…
..smells WORSE than teen spirit.(and can’t get more explicit than that online!
I have the iPad 1 but not the iPad 2. I find multitasking on the iPad piss poor because Apple crippled it with 256MB of memory. I hate it when web pages constantly have to reload when you have more than 2 apps open on the task switcher. Apple dropped the ball on that one big time.
Get the new one and compare. After all the touchpad was to be s good as the iPad 2. The new one with the A5 is amazing. Even running garage band or other very creative apps.
Really?! I too have the iPad 1 and I have yet to experience that problem with multiple apps open.
“I’m kind of an Apple fanboy….” No, don’t think so.
To everyone saying “what’s $100”, those $100 would be better spent buying quality apps for the iPad – rather than throwing it away on an obsolete platform SMH
Ain’t that the truth!! If you have an ipad already, spend the $100 in the iTunes store making your library of music, apps, books & movies better! That’s a far better use of a $100.
My cheddah not going towards an iPad – my work’s cheddah gonna do it for me.
😉
The answer: lots of people. They were sold out virtually everywhere by Saturday morning.
It could relace someone’s Newton.
I wouldn’t want one if somebody gave it to me… it’ll not be supported at all soon. Obsolete platform almost right out of the gate.
For my 8-year-old, who is obsessed with Angry Birds, $100 is a steal to play just that and a few other games, go to his favorite websites and email. He doesn’t have to mess with my decked-out iPad 2 with me worrying about him dropping it, and if he breaks this thing, so be it. In my case, it’s worth it.
But I would never buy one for myself…..
i bought one…150 dollars for a tablet that works well, has a browser, an email client, and a sleek interface that blows the iPad out of the water. It was a steal. It blows android away as well…no complaints. No regrets.
Yea really blows iPad out of the water, that’s why they killed the full project and are selling them at dollar store prices.
Any fool that says it’s better then the iPad and dosnt realize how stupid they sound when HP kills the whole WebOs project and tablet is so but hurt they can’t grasp reality.
Good luck with that dead HP Paper Weight that has been discountinued…. Oh sorry you said it was better then the iPad, yea that’s why HP Dropped it after 4 months of steller sales.
My god, it takes all kinds.
I said the interface is better than the iPad. All I got it for was a web browser. I don’t care about apps. Especially for the price. Btw, have you ever used one of these? They actually arent that bad at all. Sorry I havent been drinking the apple cool aid like everyone else here. I saw a good deal and I went for it…and it works just fine for me
-posted via my HP Touchpad
If you really needed a web browser you could have downloaded FireFox for free.
Firefox isnt something that i can hold in my lap…hence the tablet.
ditto
Anybody know where I could find an 8-track for cheap?
Those of you who don’t mind burning $100 – perhaps you could consider donating that to a worthy cause. At least then the $ would do some good. Perhaps if we knew how many units are still left we Apple Fans who can afford it could set a target for our $100 donations. I’ve just donated $100 to Médecins Sans Frontières. Yep – that will leave another touchpad on the shelves but I know MSF will make good use of the $ donated.
Let’s start something!
What an idiot…..
It’s a shame HP didn’t make more of a fist of it. WebOS has always been iOS’ most worthy rival, and competition is good. This is a case where mindshare trumps merit.
The connected appliance industry is getting more like the movie industry, where success or failure is determined in a matter of days.
Excellent observation. We’re seeing the Hollywoodization of consumer goods. HP failed not because the public lost interest in it, but because it did not have the mental strength and tenacity to overcome early setbacks.
When Ali fought Norton in 1973 he carried on to the full 12 rounds despite a broken jaw. Liston, on the other hand, threw away his 1965 rematch with Ali. Does HP want to be Ali or Liston?
Whoa! You just gave your age away. Almost no one on this site is old enough to know who Norton or Liston is. Ali maybe.
I read Ali’s biography and am interested in big fights. I have a friend who trains regularly in a boxing gym who tells me who the great fighters of the age are. The last great fighters were Ali, Norton, Liston, Frazier, Foreman. All those who came after them were not in the same category.
I remember listening, on the radio, to the Ingemar Johansson and Floyd Paterson fight. Those were the good old days of boxing.
Me too! And I worked as an usher for a couple live bouts sent to movie theaters (in glorious black and white) – Gene Fullmer fights (I lived in Salt Lake City and having a World middleweight champ was big stuff for us). Good times!
But HP’s whiffed here. They’ve folded faster than Tim Pawlenty after a bitch poll slap from Michele Bachmann.
Go back and watch the confident, superhyped promises at intro. Then the mucked up marketing (I finally started seeing the ads – good ads actually – only a few days before they killed the product – and ironically, even more since. When making an intro of a product meant to challenge two major existing infrastructures, the ad campaign should have preceded it by weeks to build awareness of what makes it unique – or even JUST that it’s unique (it’s called “buzz,” people – maybe you should study a company called Apple for a few lessons in how its created) to build immediate demand for all the units they shipped (especially to Best Buy) – and a quick sell-out would have created more buzz (see how this works yet?) – and you could carry the comedy of errors from there. Not waiting for 3.02 to be ready (all the reviews were of the beta-ish 3.0) Not seeding more apps. Etc.
Really hope the IP and rights go somewhere good. And happy to get a competent web surfer with as many functions as this already has in it for a hundred damn bucks. I do think there will be a few apps as well – not many if it doesn’t get sold soon and continues to be developed as an independent product – and HP seems to want to kinda hang on to it for reasons having to do with printers and such-like.
At least they’ve clearly segregated the WebOS property from the PSG and indicated they have independent destinies.
I just know I’m expecting a fairly sweet light-weight web surfer in the mail with no 3G contract – at a time I have none – and that probably cost HP $250 or so – for one. hundred. devalued. US $. And if I get a good year out of it while Apple’s working out iCloud, retina displays and 4G, I’ll be damned pleased.
yes I realize the TP has no 3G – I see how the post can be read otherwise. But WiFi in coffeeshops and such will do me just fine compared to what I got at the moment, i.e., nada. and I’m determined to wait to see next year’s MBPro 15″ before I decide between it and the 13″ MBA. – a purchase I’ll make before I consider a later gen iPad.
I’d say WebOS is not bad and definitely better and nicer on the eyes then Android. HP just didn’t have it in them to go Head to Head with Apple even though HP is bigger than Apple in Revenue.
I hope WebOS falls into the right hands.
iOS is still the King. iPad 2 is the King.
Well said Johnny – agree totally
The iPad is obviously better, but at $100 I would definitely get one. I tried online and at Best Buy but was too late. I could load that baby up with movies and it’d make a great roadtrip player for kids.
Your an idiot. WIth millions of these in customers hands, you don’t think developers will create apps for this. You also don’t think that someone will buy Palm from HP. HP is doing this for a reason, they could easily sell them for twice the price and they would still sell out. They are looking for a pitch to sell the Palm brand.
No, your an idiot (sic). No developer will want in on THIS deal! As a developer, I would NEVER invest ANY time porting an app to a dead platform that only sold when the device’s price fell below $100. Many of these purchasers will be cheap bastards who don’t want to pay for ANYTHING! No thanks!
I’m disappointed the TouchPad and WebOS were killed off. If I were Google, I’d buy up the WebOs part of the company, and bring in the engineers at WebOs to integrate into the Android team, as well as get hold of the Palm patents for what they’re worth. I think Apple needs to be challenged, and usually in the market there’s only place for two main players anyway. So as an Apple fanboy since the Mac512K an numerous other Mac products over the decades, I am hoping someone gives Apple a run for their money. Otherwise Apple has a tendency to be Steve Jobs’-like and doesn’t listen to its customers. Sure, it’s great when Apple ignores us and gives us amazing stuff – but when Apple ignores us and gives us poor stuff – which doesn’t happen often, but it does happen – then there’s nothing that can be done because of Apple corporate culture of not listening to customers.
+1
Apple needs competition.
Well stated MM. As a long-time user of Macs in professional applications, I’ll be watching how Apple responds to HP potentially leaving both the tablet and the PC market. With Dell also struggling, the emerging post-PC era may become quite interesting for both consumers and content producers.
All those non-iPad tablet (sitting in inventory) eventually get sold, once the price drops far enough. So then, the non-iPad percentage of total tablet unit sales gets a bump up, and gives Apple’s tablet competitors (and the ever-dimishing ranks of “Apple-haters”) false hope.
FYI – The Apple-certified refurbished original iPad (sold by the online Apple Store) is now $299 for the low-end model, when it is available. I saw the listing, but it was gone within a few hours. Anyone looking for a bargain price on a “useful” and non-buggy tablet should probably keep an eye on Apple’s “Special Deals” page instead.
Great advice, as usual!
The ever-diminishing Apple Haters? Two long-term Apple haters in my family recently bought iPads. They LOVE them! Their next laptops? Probably Macs! The End Of Times are truly upon us!
I think most people forget those that just need web and email that would otherwise be forced to buy a cheap desktop for far more than $99 or $149 who simply do not care about apps.
this is sort of bad for apple since there will now be a bunch of people with so so tablets that wont buy a new one in the near future
so next year ipad sales could flatten out just because of this which is a shame
The total number of TouchPads HP manufactured is just a “rounding error,” compared to the number of iPads Apple sells in a quarter. And they were probably sold to people who would not pay $500 for an iPad, this year or next year… 🙂
Can you hackintosh it?
Nothing like buying a piece of junk because its price is slashed and you are getting a “good deal”. Use some common sense here!!!
I can’t agree with your position Mr. Caulfield: “That’s because tablets are all about apps.” I couldn’t give a rats ass about silly two bit apps. I want to use it as an internet reader at night when sitting on my recliner. I want to read a book and have access to email. That’s it. And $99 or $199 is all that’s worth. If HP had a brain, and they don’t, they’d fire CEO and aggressively go after Apple on the low end.
In my city, the TouchPad at $99 for 16GB and $149 for 32GB was the buzz. They were all sold in an hour. My city has a population of 1.1 million. So it’s not small potatoes.
The demand was stunning. The iPad at $499 is a suckers joke. If HP doesn’t reverse their decision on this mania, they’re a lost cause. Maybe Facebook could get on board and buy WebOS and add social networking to my simple list for apps and sell if for $199. They’d kill Apple’s momentum in half in a single year!
HP can’t make any money selling it for $99. They were losing money at $399, which is why they could barely “match” Apple’s iPad price at $499 when TouchPad was released.
After a year and a half, iPad is still selling out at $499, and most people opt to get the more expensive configs. And the momentum grow, with every day that passes without a worthy competitor.
i ordered one off HPs site. Why? So I can use it as a comparison to my iPad2 when people ask me why they should buy an iPad rather than something else.
When Rims’ Playbook line is discontinued, I’ll buy one of those as well if they sell them so cheaply. Same thing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (it doesn’t seem to be doing so well lately), or the Motorola Zoom.
There are some pretty embarrassing posts on this…. Some people are too in love with their phones and tablets these days to realise that most people dont care about what brand it is…. Apple could buy everyone of these Touchpads, rebrand them, put an apple wallpaper on it… and call it the new OS… and half of you people would be singing praise of how well it multitasks and handles flash… and how u always had faith that apple would come out with it…
If u need something to browse the web and check email, its perfect! who cares if its apple or not…..
Which is why HP had to take 80% off the original iPad-matching price, to sell them off, while Apple sells all they can make (over 9 million of them in the last completed quarter) almost as soon as they are made, for the FULL retail price.
Yup… what you said makes perfect sense. Who cares if it’s an iPad or a TouchPad? 😉 Apparently, everyone cares.
Seriously, you actually wasting time posting on a Mac site?
ahahah, Silverhawk…. yes I am!!!….. Ive never been on one before, and actually laughed when I was reading some of the comments!
I honestly think some people here would sacrifice their lives for Steve Jobs….!
iPad/iPhone is a fantastic product…. there is no denying it runs rings around the HP in almost every way…… but for 100 bucks, there is no denying its a bargain!
Can we go back to Best Buy and get the Toshiba Handybook?
I like Andrew W. Purchased the HP Touchpad for $149 for the 32GB model and to be honest the two of us are huge Apple fanatics but just do happened to realize that we could get a cheap and good tablet that works and doesn’t run Android. We love the iPad but for the price why not purchase this? Is webOS really 100% dead? Not yet bugged shall see how things go now that they sold a ton of these.
They are not selling them for $99 (and $149) because they want lose even more money to support it. I think HP just wanted to get something back (at 80% off original retail price), and then move on.
If another company (such as Amazon) buys or licenses the rights to WebOS, I think they will want to sell their own devices, so they will not be motivated to provide ongoing support for existing Palm and HP WebOS devices.
I’ll bet the initial TouchPad production run was at most half a million. Apple sold over 9 million iPad in the last completed quarter. Maybe Apple should buy the rights to WebOS (along with the Palm patents). Then, for a limited time, give TouchPad owners $99 trade-in to upgrade to an iPad.
A $99 TouchPad or a 15 yr old Macallan single malt? Let me think for a second… Second’s up. Get out the snifter.
Spoken like someone who has his/her priorities straight! That wouldn’t be a contest at all in my house, either!
Saw an ad on TV still advertising the TouchPad at $399. Weird.
John & GM need to get a room already!
I am a hardcore iOS user, and have 6 different iOS devices in my home right now. However, I love trying out new things, so I have owned plenty of competing products, even if just briefly. I have had three Android phones and a B&N Nook Color that i hacked about 500 hundred different ways. I eventually got bored with them and sold them off. I appreciate Android, but it just doesn’t connect with me for some reason.
I picked up a Touchpad for $150 Saturday morning, and I can say that there is more of a chance that I hold onto it than any of those Android devices. It was pretty laggy before the update, but I found it to be much snappier in normal use after it. It did take SEVERAL tries to download. All I can think there is that HP’s servers were overrun with more purchases in one day than in two months combined.
For someone who wants a device for surfing, email, social media, photos, music, and video, the Touchpad is WELL worth $99. Consider that the competition at that price are cheap knockoff Android tablets with resistive screens, no Market, and no upgrade path. The Touchpad blows those devices away. Honestly, after playing with Android tablets running Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb, I prefer WebOS right now. Obviously that will change very soon as Google gets the bugs worked out and the Android tablet ecosystem gets it in gear, but WebOS is more elegant and easy to use today. If you keep things in this perspective, and don’t expects this to replace an iPad, the Touchpad is definitely worth this price for someone who either doesn’t need apps, or as a second device that runs Flash.
I’m a guy with an HDDVD player, so what do I know about possessing defunct technology?
Don’t care how cheap it is. Why waste money on
junk? For $100 I could buy more cool apps for
my “precious”. I meant my iPad2. 🙂
It may still have some uses. Vid, music player for the kids. Nothing is obsolete until it absolutely does nothing anymore.
HP are still by far the biggest seller of computers on the planet, followed by Dell who between them own about 30% of the world market, far more than Apple could ever dream of. Nokia are still by far the biggest maker of mobile devices in the world. Apple don’t make the best desktops or laptops or phones and i build computers that would blow them out of the water, but they are very good at marketing and putting together a package. Very little of the technology in an Apple product is designed by Apple. I will have to admit that the iPad2 is quite a good bit of kit if you feel you’ve got a use for it, but in a marketplace that is moving as fast as this, its practically outdated before its released.