HP TouchPad Discontinued 49 Days After Launch — Sold Off at $99 Fire Sale
What happened
HP launched the TouchPad tablet running webOS in July 2011 at iPad-competitive pricing. After 49 days and very poor sales, HP abruptly discontinued it and sold remaining inventory at $99. Demand at the fire-sale price vastly exceeded initial demand at $499, demonstrating the pricing mismatch at launch.[1]
What went wrong
HP priced the TouchPad to compete with the iPad despite a smaller app ecosystem, less developed software, and an unknown platform. After acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion for webOS, HP failed to invest in the developer ecosystem needed to compete with iOS.[1]
Lesson learned
An ecosystem is as important as the hardware. A tablet without apps cannot compete with established platforms at premium price points. The fire-sale demand demonstrated there was a market — just not at the stated price — pointing to a fundamental pricing strategy failure.