HP Drops Price Again For Its WebOS-Based iPad Challenger 296
oxide7 writes with this selection from IBT: "Hewlett Packard reduced the price of its TouchPad tablet computer again, highlighting the uphill battle manufacturers will need to overcome as they go head-to-head against the dominant Apple iPad line of tablets. Much of a tablet's success is based on the ecosystem of apps that is available to the end-user. HP is far behind Apple or even the No.2 tablet platform, Google's Android."
momentum (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a time many tech users and writers were excited about WebOS. I have read many reviews claiming it was possibly the best OS, compared to iOS and Android at the time.
But HP has taken an extremely long time to ship anything running WebOS. They have a tablet out, but still have not shipped a phone with competitive hardware.
They lost their momentum......
Re:Tablets are massively overpriced (Score:4, Insightful)
"Bring the price down to less than $200."
Computer businesses want to preserve margin. That's why they don't keep producing older models and dropping the price. Anyone not liking that can buy a used machine instead.
Re:Tablets are massively overpriced (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple fans have too much money, huh? That must explain why many of the iPad competitors actually cost more?
The fact you are, 1) calling the iPad a "tablet", and b) comparing its hardware specs to a netbook, tells me you don't get what makes the iPad the dominant device in its segment.
Re:Tablets are massively overpriced (Score:2, Insightful)
you don't get what makes the iPad the dominant device in its segment.
Marketing?
What is it if not a tablet?
(posted from my Xoom :)
Re:Finally, a cluestick (Score:4, Insightful)
Care to give some examples? And when you say 'better hardware', remember that physical dimensions are one of the most important aspects of the hardware to a typical user, while CPU power is significantly less important. So, your mission (should you choose to accept it) name one Android tablet that:
Last time I checked, there were no Android tablets that even met the first requirement, and the ones that matched the second two failed the third. I don't really see the point of this kind of device, so I've not looked very closely, but I have read comments from Samsung about how difficult it was to compete with Apple because they could get the components significantly cheaper due to their large volumes (purchasing volumes, that is, not the girth of their users).
Re:Finally, a cluestick (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tablets are massively overpriced (Score:3, Insightful)
you don't get what makes the iPad the dominant device in its segment.
Marketing?
No, delivering a product people want. Marketing tells people about your product, but you can't keep something as popular as the iPad (and the iPhone and the iPod) popular for as long as it has been primarily on marketing.
That's what you guys have been saying about the iPod for a decade now. When the truth is much simpler: most people don't like what you like.
What is it if not a tablet?
Not a netbook, which was his point.
(posted from my Xoom :)
Funny, I recall a rather strong marketing campaign for the Xoom. As I understand it, Motorola has sold many thousand of them. But since it's what you like, these sales had nothing to do with marketing. Only the "mindless drones" who like things you don't like are that stupid!
The obvious reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Even this Slashdot thread quickly diverges into talking about the iPad. HP and the others struggle because not only fans of the iPad are constantly talking about it, but "enemies" of it, too. So the iPad becomes the de facto tablet.
Re:Finally, a cluestick (Score:4, Insightful)
After years of having "internet" buttons and the like on my cell phone, which was just code for "charge me a lot of money for something that does't really work when I hit it accidentally" I am a fan of Apple's approach. In fact I'm mystified by Android approach to put a mess of buttons for specific functionality right there on the front of the device. It seems like a throwback to a less happy time to me.
Re:Finally, a cluestick (Score:4, Insightful)