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back to article HP confirms faster, paler TouchPad tablet

HP may not be selling quite as many TouchPad tablets as it might want to, but it's certainly not for want of trying. Hot on the heels of last month's launch comes a new, 64GB model. Out in two weeks - in France, at the very least, if not elsewhere - the 64GB model is the one that emerged in early July in a leaked presentation …

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  1. Chris Miller
    FAIL

    What are they on?

    You launch a new, me too, product into a market with a dominant incumbent and make it the same price (if not a bit more expensive). It fails to sell in significant numbers, so you introduce a tweak at an even higher price?

    Despite its (arguable) superiority to the iPad in some respects, it's surely obvious that it needs to be substantially cheaper to stand the slightest chance. If that means taking a loss until you can build up some volume sales, that's the price you pay to be in the game. If you don't want to pay it, don't play.

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    1. DrXym
      Reply Icon

      Many Android tablets are smoking the same thing

      People prepared to pay silly money have already bought an iPad. The only way to beat the iPad is by undercutting it. The margins are so obscene that it shouldn't be hard to do. If necessary some of the more superfluous stuff like 3G, compass, GPS, rear camera can all be dumped.

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    2. Levente Szileszky
      Reply Icon

      RE: What ar they on?

      Yeah, it typical HP - not willing to admit they are late and they are not at all superior so they need to be not only better but also CHEAPER than the rest of the crowd.

      If they are not willing to bleed at the beginning they will never establish any footprint, it's quite obvious.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      They are on the wrong drugs

      They should install a WebOS emulator as a visual shell on every PC they ship.

      Then we will be talking. If they continue to try to push "devices" they are not going to get anywhere so we might as well take the poor thing out of its misery.

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    4. Glenn Amspaugh
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Exactly!

      Sell each one at a loss and make it up in volume!

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rootable?

    Think it'd be possible to root one of these and install Android?

    I may just wait a few months and pick a couple out of the skips round the back...

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    1. Chris Miller
      Reply Icon
      Unhappy

      In other news

      I don't think you'll have to wait that long.

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    2. Dick Emery
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      But...

      ...wouldn't it make more sense to install iOS?

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      trivial to unlock

      You can unlock these by default -no need for a rootkit- and as it's a linux system you can install what you want: ssh, VLC, etc.

      that said, they have the problem with all tablets, iPad included: you really have to want another toy to carry around to own one. If you can touch type, a laptop with an SSD is far more useful.

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  3. wotsit

    Coming to blighty too for £509

    See http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/uk/en/index.html

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  4. Jazz Kilkullen

    white is the most popular iPad 2 colour?

    Do you have a link for that?

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    1. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)
      Reply Icon

      Re: white is the most popular iPad 2 colour?

      No. The evidence is purely anecdotal. Looking around, I see way more white iPad 2s than black ones. And white ones tend to pop out of availability on the Apple Store more often than black ones.

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  5. Gareth Gouldstone

    Interesting comparison ...

    http://www.cultofmac.com/what-tablets-looked-like-before-the-ipad-proves-how-revolutionary-apples-tablet-really-was/109373

    0 1
  6. Joe K
    FAIL

    Utter madness

    If the cheap models aren't selling, and Best Buy want to send over 220,000 unsold units back to HP, then what is the point of even manufacturing this £521 (!) dead duck?

    Surely part of some roadmap they couldn't stop, that now has some managers up at HP headquarters shitting themselves.

    When the final numbers hit at the end of the year, and compared to targets, its going to be a bloodbath.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    how long til the...

    ...Apple already patent the "thing with white on the back instead of black" color scheme.

    See you in court?

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  8. GoingGoingGone
    Unhappy

    Not Any More

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/18/hp_kills_webos_tablets_and_phones/

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  9. jai

    and who's going to bother now that HP are checking out

    now that HP have announced they're getting out of the hardware business, who's going to bother buying one of these when it'll be unsupported in the very near future?

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hang on a sec, it's got curved edges

    It'll be injuncted by our Apple at the Euro-borders.

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  11. Eddy Ito

    gone in 3 seconds

    Pity it's D.O.A. WebOS had such great promise

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    1. DrXym
      Reply Icon

      Maybe they'll open source it

      Stranger things have happened.

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  12. Ian Farrell
    FAIL

    Old news?

    Yesterday HP stated it would cancel all activities to do with PCs as well as Tablets and phones.

    It would sell off its PC business and cancel all PalmOS manufacturing.

    Perhaps this is not true for France? I doubt it.

    I suggest you check your sources.

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