HP TouchPad sales take off

The announcement that HP has abandoned tablets and that it is to stop making the TouchPad is sad news for everyone that likes these devices, and a lot of people do. One of the reasons, perhaps the main one, is that sales were poor and few people bought them.

Is it a bad product? No, it is actually quite good and both the hardware and operating system are quite attractive. So why didn't it sell?

The main reason is that it was against the iPad and Apple's tablet is very good indeed. In fact, all Apple's products - desktop computers, laptops, phones and iPods are very good. It is very difficult to compete head to head with an Apple product. If you're going to make a £400 tablet and grab a slice of the iPad's market you are going to have to make it better than the iPad and that is difficult.

The same is true of iMacs and MacBooks. If you want to sell laptop computers in the £1,000 to £1,500 price range then it's up against the MacBook Pro which is a great computer. The iMac is in the same price range and if you're looking for a desktop computer with this much cash to spend then it is a good buy. In the price ranges Apple sells in it does very well and it has a good market share.

The huge market share that Windows PCs and laptops have is mainly because they are cheap. Many people either can't afford £1,000+ computers or don't want to spend that much. They buy millions of cheap Windows PCs and are happy with their bargain.

The same is true of mobile phones and although the iPhone sells really well, it actually only has a small part of the overall market. That's because it has one expensive smartphone. It is outsold by millions of cheap alternatives and Android phones are set to dominate the market.

The tablet market doesn't have any cheap alternatives to the iPad. Tablet makers saw the great sales of iPads and though that there was a huge market for a premium priced products. There is, but Apple was in there first and continues to dominate it. To grab market share from Apple you'd have to create a better iPad.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a market for other tablets and since HPs announcement to stop the TouchPad the price has been dropped to a fraction of its original selling price. What happened is that sales shot through the roof and the last remaining stocks are selling out so fast it's hard to find one. The demand is huge.

This means that there was nothing wrong with the HP TouchPad and it was simply sold at the wrong price point. It shows that there is a big demand for cheap tablets and it just takes someone brave enough to create one.