Best Buy Tells HP "We Want The TouchPad Gone"

According to a report by AllThingsD BestBuy is so unhappy with their overstock of HP's TouchPad that it has told HP it is unwilling to pay for all the TouchPads taking up expensive space in its stores and warehouses, and wants HP to take them back.

According to the report an unnamed source has seen internal HP reports stating that Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory. These less than stellar sales numbers of the WebOS based tablet have prompted HP to slash prices on the tablet down to $399 and $499 or $100 off from its release pricing of $499 and $599.

Rich Doherty, head of the Envisioneering Group, stated that sales aren’t only failing to catch on at Best Buy, but also at other retailers, including Wal-Mart, Micro Center and Fry’s. He full expects that we may see the TouchPad bundled alongside HP computers in back-to-school sales or potentially even a further price cut.

My Thoughts:

Sadly had HP had a tablet out late last year or earlier this year before some of the better Android tabs made their way to the market they would have been in a better position. Now however, they put themselves in a really bad up hill climb.
For starters they put out a device that doesn't have the same polish as some of the other offerings. As I mentioned in our hands on review WebOS is great, and will only get better but the fit and finish of the device just isn't there.

Had HP listened to consumers complaints about some of the other devices on the market and followed up with a better device out of the gate they might have had a chance. Add to that the TouchPad is lacking many of the features like hdmi, usb and micro sd slots that are part of the exodus away from Apple and they built their own recipe for disaster.

I applaud HP for what they've done with WebOS I really had hoped the TP would have done better and given a better showing for the new system. The thing is is that most people want something they are familiar with or something that has a competing number of applications. Not something that is going to be limited over the next few years.