Hewlett Packard’s TouchPad failed in competition with Apple’s iPad

Hewlett-Packard Company (styled as hp) is an American multinational information technology corporation. It has become the world's largest PC manufacturer thanks to its excellent logistics and good value for money. HP bought mobile platform WebOS from Palm and developed its own tablet named TouchPad. The HP TouchPad is a tablet computer which was launched in July 2011 in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. It was considered to be one of the most anticipated gadgets, a possible iPad killer and Android challenger. Apple, another American multinational, is known for its hardware products like the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad computer. In April, 2010, the iPad was launched in the United States firstly. The sale of iPad reached 2,000,000 units in less than 60 days. iPad's success prompted every computer manufacturer to race for their share of the new platform. None had been innovative enough to challenge the dominance of the iPad in the tablet market.

Event though HP's TouchPad entered the market one year later and issued large scale press events and promotions, iPad was still a dominant in the tablet market. Two months after the launch of its TouchPad tablet, HP announced that it would discontinue production, and said that its WebOS business would regrettably focus its efforts on enterprise systems, software and services.

After announcing its withdrawal from the tablet market, HP sold all of its inventory TouchPad at a reduced price. One TouchPad was sold only for 99$. Thanks to low-cost promotion, the backlog of over 20 million tablets were sold out within a few days, but HP's executives could't be happy about that. Because the original price of a TouchPad was 399$, they sold their products at a loss.

Why did HP TouchPad not succeed in competition with Apple's iPad and why was the production of TouchPad stopped so quickly? In my opinion, HP made two mistakes which caused its failure in the tablet market: timing and innovation. Apple's advantages such as its excellent professional developer community and its iTune device which integrated with music, TV shows, movies, apps, books and other media, help iPad remain competitive by attracting a lot of people in the market. However, when HP's TouchPad was launched, it was much later than Apple's iPad. HP entered the tablet market without a detailed market analysis. From February to July, HP prepared only for five months. By comparison, the launch of iPad was a careful planning for years. Besides, TouchPad had a similar appearance to iPad and was heavier and thicker than iPad. Ken Dulaney, a analyst of an American information technology research and advisory firm (Gartner) said that compared with other Apple competitors, HP's TouchPad was not particularly good, consumers only wanted an iPad.

In conclusion, maybe it's really difficult to compete with Apple's iPad, but I think HP had better not to give up the tablet market. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are doing well because they're different enough from the iPad 2 to justify a purchase. So in my opinion, HP's TouchPad should make itself be distinctive, improve product quality and focus on its product research and development. As a big multinational information technology corporation, HP has a competitive strength. It still has a lot of opportunities and spaces to grow. If it could learn lessons from its failure and focus on the right strategic direction, it would not be impossible to be a real menace to Apple in the future.

YANG Mingwei