HP, are you crazy?
Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone.
I just don’t understand this at all. The only “unfulfilled demand” was for a product that was being sold at unsustainably low, money-losing, fire-sale prices. No one actually wanted a TouchPad, and this isn’t likely to help whoever ends up doing something with WebOS. And now HP CEO Leo Apotheker looks like he doesn’t stand by his decisions. Does HP have to report a bigger write-down for tax purposes or something?
Retired Gizmodo editor Brian Lam put it well:
if hp revives the touchpad because of sales at 99 they are mistaking break up sex for a proposal.
Update: A few responses speculate that this is to finish up deals with suppliers — to build the rest of the tablets instead of throwing the pieces out. I assume that there is still quite a bit of added expense, but I don’t know. It still seems bizarre.
Related: HP made the right moves: It’s no Apple, so it shouldn’t try to be
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