Bringing to market the webOS-powered HP Touchpad earlier this year, the world’s biggest PC maker announced a few months later that it would be discontinuing the product line after poor sales. Generally blamed on the lack of quality apps available on the platform, the Touchpad has since been reduced dramatically in price from its original £399 (16GB model) to just £100 as HP seeks to clear the backlog of unsold stock.
HP will now adopt a new strategy in the tablet market, probably ditching the webOS system completely in favour of Windows 8-powered devices.
"[The] thinking hasn't changed,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s Personal Systems Group “We're continuing to focus on our Microsoft-based tablets we have, ones that we'll develop on Windows 8. I think from a webOS perspective that's kind of the next piece of work to complete.”
Meg Whitman, HP's latest CEO, added: "I think we need to be in the tablet business, and we're certainly going to be there with Windows 8. We're going to make another run at this business, and we're going to make a decision about the long-term future of webOS within HP over the next couple of months."
Further details of HP’s new strategy in the competitive tablet market are expected to be revealed following the company’s fourth quarter earnings on Monday, November 21.
