What HP's TouchPad fire sale tells iPad rivals

Hundreds of thousands of TouchPads have been sold in days, after HP announced it would stop manufacturing its would-be iPad competitor. The sudden desirability of the device was of course due to heavy discounting. Currys and PC World were selling their stocks off for just £89, down from the original RRP of £399. 

“All this clamouring for the TouchPad, kind of bittersweet,” she said. According to components analysts, each of the gadgets cost HP at least £180 just to build, so selling the Touchpad for £89 would never have been considered until the firm decided to abandon it. 

But the success of HP’s fire sale may provide clues to others hoping to loosen Apple’s stranglehold on the tablet computing market. The main Google Android tablets, made by Samsung and Motorola, are pitched at around the same £400-ish price point as the iPad. 

But, put together with all the other Android tablets, it’s estimated they are outsold by Apple’s devices eight to one. Given Andoid makers’ weaker marketing, and, crucially, fewer apps, that ratio seems unlikely to change significantly. So the problem becomes circular: the user base is too small for app developers to invest in, so users buy an iPad because there are more apps and the user base gets even smaller relative to Apple’s.