With HP tablet dead, who can challenge Apple?

The sudden demise of Hewlett-Packard Co's WebOS TouchPad after just seven weeks on shelves was a reminder of how tech giants have failed so far to take a bite out of Apple Inc's iPad.

The TouchPad joins Dell Streak 5 in the tablet graveyard and weak sales for many offerings suggest others are bound to follow.
"The non-iPad tablets just won't sell at retail. That's the clear message from events over the past few days," said Mark Gerber, an analyst at Boston research and investment firm Detwiler Fenton.
Other tablets that have failed to click with consumers include Asustek Computer Eee Pad Transformer and the Xoom from Motorola Mobility, which Google Inc plans to buy.
Research in Motion's PlayBook received scathing reviews and sales have been slack, but it will probably survive since it is key to RIM's strategy.
"I do not expect RIM to be shutting down PlayBook sales any time soon or abandoning that platform, because RIM views it as its future," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial in New York.
Apple's rivals have not fared any better in designing software for tablets.

Apple's iOS tablet software accounted for 61.3% of the tablet market in the second quarter, more than double the 30.1% share held by Google's Android, its nearest competitor. Microsoft held a paltry 4.6% share and RIM 3.3%, according to Strategy Analytics.

But the landscape could soon change. Google's move this week to buy Motorola Mobility, a hardware manufacturer, has also potentially raised the stakes against Apple as it will give the Internet leader devices to showcase its software -- just as Apple does.
All eyes are now on Google's "Ice Cream Sandwich" system, which will unite the Android software used in tablets and smartphones. That is expected to encourage developers to flock to the platform and create better apps.
Microsoft could also pose a threat when it releases its tablet software, code-named Windows 8, but this probably won't be until the fall of 2012.
"The ecosystem built around Microsoft is the largest computing ecosystem out there, so this makes it the company most likely to get significant traction in the tablet marketplace," said BGC's Gillis.
Microsoft has said the software will run on a range of devices from traditional PCs to laptops and tablets, and incorporate mouse and keyboard commands.

HP Tablet Clearance: How To Get A Super-Cheap TouchPad

Following HP's August 18 bombshell announcement that it would discontinue its poorly selling TouchPad tablet, the company decided to deeply discount the remaining devices. The company issued a note to retailers that said all units would receive a $300 price cut. After factoring in a price drop from earlier in August, the new price for 16GB units would be $99; the 32GB units would cost $149.
Ironically, the repriced tablets are now a hot commodity--if you can find one.
HP's website currently sports a sale page for the discounted tablets. Though the tablets were out of stock (online and in stores) in the United States on Sunday, more are apparently on the way, according to a notice on the site, which advises customers to "check back soon."
Users can sign up for an email alert to find out when more devices are available.

Retail giant Best Buy began selling the discounted tablets in the United States on Sunday. Though the site said that the TouchPads were "sold out online" on Sunday evening, a post on the site informed early adopters of a return/exchange policy update. "Customers who purchased the 16GB or 32GB TouchPad after June 19 may come into the store to get either a full refund or a refund of the difference between the price they paid and the clearance price," the post read. "Best Buy will not accept customer returns or exchanges on clearance-priced TouchPads bought through any Best Buy channel."

WebOSroundup explains that users who bought the tablet at full price can obtain their refunds:

HP's tablet exit no signal of iPad immunity, say analysts

Computerworld - Hewlett-Packard's departure from the tablet business does not mean that Apple's iPad will remain the undisputed king, analysts said today.

"WebOS was never going to be an iPad killer," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. "It did have a chance at the enterprise market, but it was never going to challenge the iPad's very strong position in the consumer tablet space."
On Thursday, HP announced that it would stop making tablets and smartphones powered by webOS, the operating system it acquired when it bought Palm last year for $1.2 billion. The move -- just weeks after HP started selling its TouchPad tablet -- caught most analysts by surprise.
But it's not a signal that Apple will retain its current position as the leading tablet seller: HP's webOS was simply too small a player -- and likely to remain so -- to affect Apple
"They were the fourth horse in a three-horse race," said Gottheil, referring to Google and its Android operating system, Apple with iOS and Microsoft with its next iteration of Windows, Windows 8.
Chris Connery, an analyst with DisplaySearch, sees the tablet race as even tighter, one between Google and Apple with Microsoft's ability to join the fight still unproven. "Tablets are a two-OS space right now," said Connery. "HP came to the conclusion quite quickly that there wasn't room for three."
Both Gottheil and Connery said that HP's euthanasia of webOS tablets is not a signal that precludes others, especially Google, from challenging or even surpassing Apple.
"There are things Apple just won't do," said Gottheil. "It won't create as wide an array of [tablet] form factors as will Android tablet makers. And it won't compete on the very low end, simply because of [compromises] it won't make."
Challenging Apple may be difficult, if not impossible, today, when rival tablets play in the same band of prices, but that won't last forever, said Gottheil.
"At some point, consumers will break into camps, with one saying 'I want to get something good enough that's cheap,' and the other saying 'I want something that's great.' The first, that will go to Android," Gottheil said.
But it's tough to predict when that will happen.
Neither analyst saw Android tablets on the same relatively-short timeline that developed for Android smartphones, and agreed that it will probably take longer to challenge the iPad than it did to catch the iPhone.
"I think the curve might be a little more difficult for Android [on tablets] than on smartphones," said Connery. "Apple keeps moving the bar."
Connery noted that Google's planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility -- a $12.5 billion deal that it announced earlier this week -- has implications in the Android-versus-iOS tablet tussle.
"Google and Motorola are getting together for some reason, and it's not all about patents," said Connery. "They have tablets in mind as well."
Analysts have generally agreed that Google's purchase was driven by a desire to beef up its patent portfolio as it defends Android from legal challenges by both Apple and Microsoft, although some, including German patent activist Florian Mueller, have argued to the contrary.
But even though the iPad's dominance may not be viable forever, it won't be easy to unseat it.
"HP's decision to not only walk away from webOS, but perhaps all its PC business, shows how tough it is to play in consumer electronics," Connery concluded. "We've seen brand and brand again not have a sustainable consumer business. Everyone wants to be in it, but once there, they realize how slim the margins are. Everyone except Apple, that is."
And that, added Gottheil, is exactly what HP's actions do demonstrate.
"In this age of 'consumerization [of IT]' HP is 'de-consumerizing' its business," said Gottheil.
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