Linked by David Adams on Wed 17th Aug 2011 17:46 UTC
Ars Technica is reporting that US Retailer Best Buy has been able to sell less than 10% of the TouchPad tablets that it ordered from HP, and now wants HP to take them back. Similarly, deal-a-day site Woot offered TouchPads at a very aggressive price, and only managed to sell 612 of them. This is for a site that often sells out goofy tech widgets in hours. When the TouchPad was gearing up for release, there seemed to be a fair amount of interest among geeks. Is it just that it hasn't resonated the same way with the general public, or have people just been disappointed once they've put their hands on one?
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You can buy a laptop at the same Best Buy store that's faster,cheaper and more all around useful from around $250-$400 as compared to $399-$600 those tablets are going for.
Quite frankly tablets shouldn't cost more than the cheapest laptop to begin with since you aren't getting that much for your money to begin with.
A $400-$600 tablet is a sick joke.
The price in NZ isn't expensive - the Touch Pad in NZ is being sold on average $200 cheaper than the iPad 2 of similar storage size.
What is the real problem? the only reason I know about the problem is because I am part of the 'geek subculture' where I know about these sorts of things but for the average user they only know what is easily accessible and marketed to them - if HP sit on the side lines playing with themselves instead of promoting their product then who is really to blame for the crappy sales? when HP fails to send out representatives to train shop staff and get people fired-up and excited about the product are you surprised that the Touch Pad isn't being pushed to consumers.
I swear HP secretly want to fail because it is the only way to describe how almost every time they seem to be hell bent on sabotaging every opportunity they have to make it big.