Hardware
HP Should Refund all TouchPad Owners Straight Up
OK, look, not one every starts out to create a dud. There’s a saying in the theatre biz that no company starts out to do a bad show. But bad shows happen. Bad products and bad receptions of products happen all the time. It’s a fact of life. So, why am I calling for HP to refund all TouchPad owners?
Well, let’s see. It’s August 18th. The TouchPad semi-officially launched on July 1. (That semi preface is how HP put it when it promised a big roll out a few weeks later.) We’re talking seven and half weeks on the market. During that time HP promoted (not well) and promised updates, support, service, and even wooed early adopters who felt they got the shaft when the prices dropped with a $50 credit on its App Store. So, while you can bet that HP was sweating bullets over both its not-ready-for prime time hardware, poor reviews of same, and its own marketing mishaps, it was also thinking ahead to this possible conclusion. Which calls the entire acquisition of Palm into question in the first place.
But back to the refund thing. Let’s take HP at its word that the real launch wasn’t until July 18th. That cuts the seven and one half weeks down to four and a half. Let’s take Best Buy at its word when it says it couldn’t move the TouchPad even with steep discounts. So, there couldn’t be that many of them out there. HP knew it had a lemon on its hands from the get go. As much as I have like experimenting with the TouchPad I still say that it is a Beta product. So, I think HP ought to own up to its mistakes or missteps here and return the money for those of us who participated in that Beta program, now that the product seems to have failed in that testing. Unfortunately they probably didn’t make enough money to cover the cost of the accounting on the whole affair.
HildyJ
08/18/2011 at 8:22 pm
It would be nice if they did but, as one with a boatload of products abandoned by their companies (including HP’s Slate which may be dieing a quiet death), I wouldn’t hold my breath. Has any theater company offered refunds for people who went to a bad show? At least you have a product that sort of works and maybe Cyanogen will eventually offer an Android ROM for it. Oh well.
Anonymous
08/18/2011 at 8:35 pm
The TouchPad sucks… I have an iPad (original version) and a TouchPad… if I went into a store today I would pick the old iPad over the TouchPad in a heart beat after just turing the TouchPad on… it is sooooo slooooooowwwww….
Michelle Fleshman
08/18/2011 at 11:57 pm
I believe HP should take responsibilty for their mistake and step up, put on their big boy/big girl pants and offer those that were gracious enough to buy a product that is already being done away with in this short time a full refund if they choose to return it. These are not cheap little toys. HP pushed their “awesome” product through advertisement and promised it would out-do the iPad by far . . . . . NOT! I do like mine and yes I will still be able to access the internet but really, I would never have paid this much money for that capability. What else can in be used for now??? Well, we will see how loyal they are to their customers, won’t we?
Bigredman24
08/19/2011 at 2:15 am
Just got ours TWO DAYS AGO and now this!!?? I’m stuck with a $400 web browser and I’m extremely pissed. And we bought ours from a campus bookstore that has a strict no return policy. Guess I’ll have to hope and pray hp does something. In the meantime I’ll be kicking myself for not buying an iPad. All I wanted was a tablet with flash capabilities.
Willem Evenhuis
08/19/2011 at 8:28 am
Since windows phone 7 mango has something that looks like WebOs cards for multitasking, HP could try suiing microsoft for patent infringement. Another option would be for microsoft to buy the OS patent. It would otherise be a waste of investment to put the WebOs patent on the dusty shelves of HP.