HP TouchPad 16GB - $99.

[bfdd]

I think WebOS is better than any version of Android I've used(various 3.x and 2.x tablets), but I feel it lacks the polish and refine to say it's better than iOS.

 

[Makaveli]

I bought one off TD on Tuesday but it was a mission the site was getting hit hard.

You can't find it on the site anymore half of my IT department bought one also, I should have grabbed liike 4 of them picked up the 32GB model for $169 so not complaining.

Now I will look at a few accessories, can wait to get it in my hands and to start modifying it.

 

[shortylickens]

You know, it makes me wonder......

These things are selling like hotcakes now. If they had just asked a reasonable price to begin with, couldnt it have had decent sales the whole time?

That may have been brought up already, I dunno. After 600 posts its all a blur.

 

[ViRGE]

You know, it makes me wonder......

These things are selling like hotcakes now. If they had just asked a reasonable price to begin with, couldnt it have had decent sales the whole time?

That may have been brought up already, I dunno. After 600 posts its all a blur.

Indeed it has been. The consensus is that the only way they'd be able to get a reasonable sales volume would be to sell it below cost - there's no way to make a profit selling TouchPads as they stand.

 

[Red Storm]

Indeed it has been. The consensus is that the only way they'd be able to get a reasonable sales volume would be to sell it below cost - there's no way to make a profit selling TouchPads as they stand.

Also at ~$100 it is very easy to overlook the annoying bugs that plague the Touchpad. Google accounts not signing in to chat on random routers, accounts not syncing until you go into a specific app and delete and re-add it from there, etc.

I still think they should have launched this thing at $350 or less, it would have sold. webOS is made for mobile devices, the multitasking implementation is the best in the business, so it's sad to see HP screw it all up.

 

[LikeLinus]

Seems HP is run by an idiot for not realizing they had product and contracts remaining.

I just see piss poor management and them doing serious damage to their reputation by this mess.

"Hi, I'm from HP, let us help you run your business."

Serious damage to their reputation? All I see on the news and web sites is how these things are selling out everywhere and how everyone wants one. There were lines around the building at some Best Buy like it was Black Friday. This has already placed them in the #2 spot behind Apple in total tablet sales. Their name has been all over the press. On August 18th, no one was talking about HP. Today, everyone is talking about them. I really don't see a whole lot of negative press.

You make the utterly stupid assumption that HP "didn't realize they had product or contracts". That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. HP was going to write-off the product inventory and most likely cancel or pay off the contract. They take the hit this quarter and move on with their lives. It's clearly apparent you know absolutely nothing about business. A $100MM write-off doesn't really do much damage to the PC division of HP that is a $40 billion company. They just spent $11 Billion on Autonomy!! It's a drop in the bucket.

The flip side to this is the free press they've generated, apps sold, "foot traffic" to their website and everyone buying up the accessories as well - which they're not taking a loss on. After all is said and done, I doubt it's actually $100MM. That's even with estimates that the touchpad cost $400 to make, which I don't believe.

Ultimately if the goal is to continue the development of WebOS....they've just increased their user base by half a million. They want to get out of the hardware side like IBM did and move to software based.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Remember guys, HP is hinting that this "last" run of Touchpads may not be priced at $99/$149. I wonder if they're going to test the waters a little more and up the price a bit? Really, they should've taken a page from Amazon's book and released it for a much lower price and subsidized it through app and movie sales. Of course, that would require a good base of applications (their second mistake), but that's a different discussion.

 

[LikeLinus]

Seems HP is run by an idiot for not realizing they had product and contracts remaining.

I just see piss poor management and them doing serious damage to their reputation by this mess.

"Hi, I'm from HP, let us help you run your business."

Serious damage to their reputation? All I see on the news and web sites is how these things are selling out everywhere and how everyone wants one. There were lines around the building at some Best Buy like it was Black Friday. This has already placed them in the #2 spot behind Apple in total tablet sales. Their name has been all over the press. On August 18th, no one was talking about HP. Today, everyone is talking about them. I really don't see a whole lot of negative press.

You make the utterly stupid assumption that HP "didn't realize they had product or contracts". That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard. HP was going to write-off the product inventory and most likely cancel or pay off the contract. They take the hit this quarter and move on with their lives. It's clearly apparent you know absolutely nothing about business. A $100MM write-off doesn't really do much damage to the PC division of HP that is a $40 billion company. They just spent $11 Billion on Autonomy!! It's a drop in the bucket.

The flip side to this is the free press they've generated, apps sold, "foot traffic" to their website and everyone buying up the accessories as well - which they're not taking a loss on. After all is said and done, I doubt it's actually $100MM. That's even with estimates that the touchpad cost $400 to make, which I don't believe. It's sort of the strategy that Microsoft took with the Xbox. It's a loss leader if they can put the platform in more peoples homes and the software sales make up the difference and drive people to use the platform.

Ultimately if the goal is to continue the development of WebOS....they've just increased their user base by half a million. They want to get out of the hardware side like IBM did and move to software based.

 

[lothar]

I don't understand the point of the Touchstone charger...People keep claiming "no wires", but yet it has a wire at the back and comes with an AC unit.
The HP case already serves as a stand...didn't need another one.

Looks like I wasted money on this.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Serious damage to their reputation? All I see on the news and web sites is how these things are selling out everywhere and how everyone wants one. There were lines around the building at some Best Buy like it was Black Friday. This has already placed them in the #2 spot behind Apple in total tablet sales. Their name has been all over the press. On August 18th, no one was talking about HP. Today, everyone is talking about them. I really don't see a whole lot of negative press.

You make the utterly stupid assumption that HP "didn't realize they had product or contracts". That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard. HP was going to write-off the product inventory and most likely cancel or pay off the contract. They take the hit this quarter and move on with their lives. It's clearly apparent you know absolutely nothing about business. A $100MM write-off doesn't really do much damage to the PC division of HP that is a $40 billion company. They just spent $11 Billion on Autonomy!! It's a drop in the bucket.

The flip side to this is the free press they've generated, apps sold, "foot traffic" to their website and everyone buying up the accessories as well - which they're not taking a loss on. After all is said and done, I doubt it's actually $100MM. That's even with estimates that the touchpad cost $400 to make, which I don't believe. It's sort of the strategy that Microsoft took with the Xbox. It's a loss leader if they can put the platform in more peoples homes and the software sales make up the difference and drive people to use the platform.

Ultimately if the goal is to continue the development of WebOS....they've just increased their user base by half a million. They want to get out of the hardware side like IBM did and move to software based.

LOL, you're kidding, right?

Shedding the hardware part of their business has been a massive clusterfuck, their stock took a 20% hit, the sale of the products have been a mess.

All it proves is that if you're willing to take a massive loss you can move products.

In a year, let's revisit this "brilliant" strategy and see how it worked.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/02/samsung-will-never-buy-webos-ceo-says/

 

[ponyo]

I don't understand the point of the Touchstone charger...People keep claiming "no wires", but yet it has a wire at the back and comes with an AC unit.
The HP case already serves as a stand...didn't need another one.

Looks like I wasted money on this.

It's luxury accessory. Like any accessory it's not needed but nice to have. I don't see the point of a cover so I didn't buy one. I hate covers in general. But I bought the Touchstone because it's cool technology. You should have no problem unloading the Touchstone without a loss. Return it.

 

[LikeLinus]

LOL, you're kidding, right?

Shedding the hardware part of their business has been a massive clusterfuck, their stock took a 20% hit, the sale of the products have been a mess.

All it proves is that if you're willing to take a massive loss you can move products.

In a year, let's revisit this "brilliant" strategy and see how it worked.

Yeah, using 1 day of stock market results is a brilliant way to know the true value of a long term strategic plan. They went from $32 a share when they announced their poor 3Q results; to now where it sits around $25-26. It went as low as $23, but it has rebounded a little bit. Any big announcement like this is going to cause stock price flux.

5 Years ago IBM was sitting at $82 a share. It's now at $167. So how did that turn out for IBM?

Their PC business is simply not a huge profit center. The decline of PC has been going on for years and the real long-term focus is going to shift on the software/services. We don't really know the complete vision for their long-term strategy.

Fine, let's wait a year. Only took your stupid comment a week to look ignorant. You apparently overlooked the fact they were sitting on hardware and the tooling/design cost was already spent. All it took was ramping up production and they could have new product. It's of little cost/investment to them and they are able to make the public happy and get their OS into a larger user base. Their investment in PALM was 1.2B. Again, put another $100MM on top of that and it is meaningless in the long term.

Last quarter more Smart Phones were shipped than PC. The trend is to move to smaller and lighter devices. There will always be a need for the raw horsepower a PC can give, but the market will become more of a niche for specialized needs. Large corporations are looking at things like thin clients and ways to utilize server processors/memory to run virtualization and have everything stored on the network (the cloud). Take a look at the changing world around you and open your eyes. The PC market isn't what it once was HP is looking at the long term future of the company. They can sell off or spin-off the PC business into a separate entity and not have their low profit margins or quarterly losses drag down the true valuation of their main company. They could get a huge infusion of cash to fund their long-term strategy.

You can't see outside that simple-minded little apple shaped box. So you think they should sit on the hardware, ignore customers and orders that are placed and take even a larger loss by sitting on product and doing nothing? You're a freaking genius. You offer nothing as a solution; you just simply say things are wrong and complain. You're a pure visionary. I'd give you 6 months tops to run a company into the ground…..We wouldn't need a year.

 

[lothar]

It's luxury accessory. Like any accessory it's not needed but nice to have. I don't see the point of a cover so I didn't buy one. I hate covers in general. But I bought the Touchstone because it's cool technology. You should have no problem unloading the Touchstone without a loss. Return it.

I bought it because I thought it was this magical stand that charges the Touchpad without any having wires and using any electrical outlets.
I was wrong.

Don't think I will return it though since it was only $40...
Everyone on the internet claimed this accessory was a necessity.

 

[Kenmitch]

I don't understand the point of the Touchstone charger...People keep claiming "no wires", but yet it has a wire at the back and comes with an AC unit.
The HP case already serves as a stand...didn't need another one.

Looks like I wasted money on this.

How could a charger function at all without a power source?

If nothing else it saves wear and tear on the mini-usb connector. I can also see the presentation mode being useful to a lot of people.

 

[LikeLinus]

How could a charger function at all without a power source?

If nothing else it saves wear and tear on the mini-usb connector. I can also see the presentation mode being useful to a lot of people.

This. The exhibition mode is pretty cool. I sit it on my night stand and load up the weather. I've used it as an alarm clock too. I generally use my phone, but tried it for a few days. Works well.

 

[nitrous9200]

Touchstone is a nice idea but it seems way too expensive. It would also work well with a keyboard if you wanted to type on the thing.
I really like my Touchpad; even if it isn't supported much in the future and the few bugs/annoyances I come across aren't fixed, I still find it very useful for the few things I bought it for: web browsing, email, video calling, Google Reader and games. Battery life is great, the multitasking is nice, Flash in the browser has come in handy and the form factor is convenient (a stand would be nice). I'm not sure if I could give it to my grandma to replace her desktop but it's close.

 

[Wyndru]

I bought it because I thought it was this magical stand that charges the Touchpad without any having wires and using any electrical outlets.
I was wrong.

Don't think I will return it though since it was only $40...
Everyone on the internet claimed this accessory was a necessity.

Magical is right, you thought something could charge it without at least a power source to begin with?

Not a necessity, but my wife likes it, and it's good for me because it's painful to watch her stumble with mini usb connectors.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I don't understand the point of the Touchstone charger...People keep claiming "no wires", but yet it has a wire at the back and comes with an AC unit.

Are you being serious? Of course the charger has to plug in; it won't suck electricity out of the air to charge the Touchpad. The point here is that you just have to sit the Touchpad on it to charge -- you don't have to connect the Touchpad to it in any way.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Are you being serious? Of course the charger has to plug in; it won't suck electricity out of the air to charge the Touchpad. The point here is that you just have to sit the Touchpad on it to charge -- you don't have to connect the Touchpad to it in any way.

I like the Touchstone because it automatically goes into Exhibition mode. It's cool to have a slideshow, weather, news, etc. when it's charging. I'm having a problem though. I got it to charge with the case on the first time I tried, but I can't seem to get it working again. I just had to take it out of the case this morning.

Overall, I like the Touchpad and the tablet form factor a lot. It's a great couch surfer that can do more than my iPhone (flash and larger display). I do have some issues that I'm hoping will get patched or homebrew apps:
- Browser is pretty slow, even compared to the iPad (from what I've heard). Seems like their javascript engine is to blame. Turning off javascript isn't really an option for a lot of sites, because they don't degrade well.
- No scrollbar in the browser. I hate not knowing how far through a page I am.
- Flash video performance is a little off at times. Seems like it's dropping frames, even after all of the Preware tweaks.
- Weird Google/URL issues. If I start typing a Google search into the browser bar and click on a historical search URL (ex. http://www.google.com/search?q=test), it just takes me to the Google homepage. I'd also really like Google search suggestions. Maybe these are settings that I just haven't found yet.
- Predictive text isn't working for me (it's on in settings). I added my email address and name. They don't get suggested to me.
- Facebook app really needs a "latest news" feed. The regular news feed misses a lot of stuff or it's delayed.
- Netflix. I don't know that we'll ever get this though. They aren't going to write a native app and I don't see Silverlight being ported to it either. Maybe Netflix will switch to HTML5 eventually.

Overall, I can't complain for $99. I'll consider installing Android if it ever gets to a stable point on the Touchpad, mostly for better app and homebrew support.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I bought it because I thought it was this magical stand that charges the Touchpad without any having wires and using any electrical outlets.
I was wrong.

Don't think I will return it though since it was only $40...
Everyone on the internet claimed this accessory was a necessity.

LOL!!!!! :biggrin:

Yes, it magically is able to generate it's own electricity and charge your touchpad.

 

[iahk]

I got the touchstone dock simply because I got it for my palm pre too. Gotta keep the consistency.

But no really, it's really a nice think to have. On top of not having to put in and pull out the usb connector everytime, it's exactly as joshsquall describes. The exhibition mode is really cool to have. When my palm pre is on the touchstone dock, it automatically shows clock, my weather dashboard, and anything coming up on my calendar, and any alarms i set (all on a dimmed screen). Great to see at a glance.

That's why I think, if anything, the touchpad paired with the touchstone dock would be the greatest oversized alarm clock in mankind.

 

[aceO07]

The micro-usb port can be a pain to find and plug into. Touchstone solves that problem.

I plan to give one to my parents. Good luck trying to get them to plug in that cable. It'll probably just run out of power and they'll just not use it. With the Touchstone they just plop it on. Having zero computer experience, I expect they should be able to at least look at photos, browse bookmarked websites, and look at the weather forecasts. If not even that, it'll be in exhibition mode showing the weather..

No need to get an iPad for 5x the price if they only use a few of the features AND still have to plug it in.

 

[aceO07]

That's why I think, if anything, the touchpad paired with the touchstone dock would be the greatest oversized alarm clock in mankind.

There's an app for that.

There's actually an app to make it into a clock (internet) radio alarm. There's a free version that isn't updated for a while and a paid ($2?) version. I haven't look at it much yet, but it'd be awesome if the developer makes a version for the Touchpad.

Think it's called uberClock or uberRadio.

 

[Spoooon]

The micro-usb port can be a pain to find and plug into. Touchstone solves that problem.

I plan to give one to my parents. Good luck trying to get them to plug in that cable. It'll probably just run out of power and they'll just not use it. With the Touchstone they just plop it on. Having zero computer experience, I expect they should be able to at least look at photos, browse bookmarked websites, and look at the weather forecasts. If not even that, it'll be in exhibition mode showing the weather..

No need to get an iPad for 5x the price if they only use a few of the features AND still have to plug it in.

The cable is freaking crazy. Sometimes it's easy, other times it's an exercise in futility.

I keep the touchstone on my desk and have the other charger in the bedroom for over night.

HP would probably be in another business entirely if they got these things to work without having to plug them in.

 

[iahk]

There's an app for that.

There's actually an app to make it into a clock (internet) radio alarm. There's a free version that isn't updated for a while and a paid ($2?) version. I haven't look at it much yet, but it'd be awesome if the developer makes a version for the Touchpad.

Think it's called uberClock or uberRadio.

Noted! I'm one of the people that have touchpad accessories without a touchpad. My HP SMB order is still in limbo.