Story # 1: TouchPad RIP - that didn't take long!

[pdq]

For those who haven't heard, HP is dumping WebOS and everything associated with it - smartphones _and_ the TouchPad.

Wow. For those keeping score:

July 1: launches at $599
Aug 1: first software update, and "limited time" $50 instant rebate
Aug 3: "limited promotion" at $100 off
Aug 5: Woot offers $120 off; 612 sold
Aug 11: $100 price cut made permanent - ("we were pleased with response" said HP rep)
Aug 16: articles appear saying Best Buy can't sell them, wants HP to take them back; HP "pleading for more time"
Aug 18: HP pulls the plug.

Gotta feel a little sorry for those early suckers customers who paid six bills or more for a tablet that got EOL'ed 49 days after launch. And you gotta wonder how many other tablet manufacturers have to run into this brick wall that is the current iPad tablet market before the rest of the industry (and consumers) decide that yet another wanabee may not be worth the risk.

[vision63]

I mourn more for the death of Palm.

It is sad. I remember how awesome it was to buy my first Palm Pilot. Almost as cool as when I bought my Fat Mac (which I swapped out days later for the new Mac Plus). Buying the little apps and playing the stupid little games. Reading ebooks on it. Feeling so technologically fit.

[JEBB]

I wonder if HP will try to sell the remaining TouchPads or send them to a landfill?

[decay]

IPAD KILLERZ!

[mattkime]

Apple has an incredible lead when it comes to this stuff.

[freeradical]

If you want an RPN, calculator, HP is the only game in town.

[WHiiP]

freeradical wrote:
If you want an RPN, calculator, HP is the only game in town.

I don't. :fawkdance: :biggrin:

[DP]

vision63 wrote:
I mourn more for the death of Palm.

It is sad. I remember how awesome it was to buy my first Palm Pilot. Almost as cool as when I bought my Fat Mac (which I swapped out days later for the new Mac Plus). Buying the little apps and playing the stupid little games. Reading ebooks on it. Feeling so technologically fit.

I still use my Treo 650 as a Pilot. Battery is going strong and the phone is fine. I figure I can use it if I ever drop my current phone in the toilet...

[DeusxMac]

pdq wrote:
For those who haven't heard, HP is...dumping WebOS...and everything associated with it - smartphones _and_ the TouchPad.

Good example how facts get spun out into falsehoods really quickly. :damnyou:

HP is not dumping WebOS, they're only dumping their WebOS hardware; the TouchPad and WebOS based phones.

They hope to license WebOS to other manufacturers the same way Google licenses Android.
There was a big article about this in Tuesdays WSJ.

[RAMd®d]

I mourn more for the death of Palm.

Agreed.

My first Palm was a V, then a Tungsten T3.

I wanted a Vx but missed that boat. What a great little device. What great devices for their time.

I hate to see anybody go under, especially in this economy. While Apple will probably be the manufacturer that makes the tech gear I want, competition is good, and not everybody needs what Apple builds.

It's amazing that the iPhone and iPad (and to a lesser degree, the 'Pod) have defined the Standard for so many, and that it's as though nobody wants a "tablet" but everybody (yeah, I know) wants an iPad.

Still, Palm was there when the Newton wasn't.