HP Dropping the TouchPad…and its PC Business?
Yesterday Best Buy asked HP to take back about 200,000 unsold TouchPads that are “taking up shelf space” after disappointing sales.
Even with deep discounts, they’ve only moved about 25,000 units since TouchPad’s release in July. To make matters worse, the word is that Best Buy’s not the only retailer reporting lousy sales of the new tablet.
So they killed it.
This afternoon HP announced that it will discontinue the TouchPad. And WebOS in general.
Far more surprising, HP Ceo Leo Apotheker also indicated the company’s intentions to “spin off” its PC business – which accounts for about 1/3 of the company’s revenue.
From CNN Money:
HP still sells more PCs than any other vendor, shipping 14.9 million PCs last quarter — enough to give it control of 17.5% of the market, according to Gartner.
It’s the biggest, but it wants to drop the business? We’ve heard the company describe its goals to move into “more profitable” software and services for corporate technology. That could begin to explain it.
Stay tuned as we bring you more on this developing story.
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