HP TouchPad

The HP TouchPad is a tablet computer that was developed and designed by Hewlett-Packard. The HP TouchPad was launched on July 1, 2011, in the United States; July 15 in Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany; and August 15 in Australia.

On August 18, 2011, 49 days after the TouchPad was launched in the United States, HP announced that it would discontinue all current devices running webOS. Remaining TouchPad stock received substantial price reductions, and quickly sold out.

History

The HP TouchPad was announced on February 9, 2011, at the webOS "Think Beyond" event held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco alongside the HP Veer and HP Pre 3.

Initial sales of the device sold 25,000 of 270,000 units, and did not meet HP's expectations, rapidly becoming overshadowed by the launch of the iPad 2 in March. On August 16, 2011, it was reported that Best Buy refused to pay HP for any more TouchPad stock. In Europe, the TouchPad was estimated to have sold 12,000 in its first month of release. In Australia, Harvey Norman who was the exclusive retailer sold about 1,200 units in the four days it was on sale. Industry commentators suggested that the lack of apps for the platform and lackluster advertising was hindering sales. On August 18, HP announced that it would discontinue all webOS devices. HP CTO Shane Robison noted that the TouchPad "was half a generation or a generation behind the iPad and so that wasn't going to drive volume." Some years later, a member of the development team described the device as being made from "cast-off reject iPad parts."