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The TouchPad Explosion: Why, When, and for How Long?

By: Kayla Ward, 8/23/2011 9:42 pm | 62 comments

I am sure you all have noticed the flood of HP TouchPad talk on the net since the recent announcements. Well, a curious webOS developer and a social analytics firm investigated how frequently discussion and inquiry has involved the webOS tablet.

Below is a chart of various tablets our fellow community member, compiled using the Google webapp, Trends. The top section of the graph measures the volume of Google search traffic, while the bottom measures the volume of news references, both over the last 12 months.

Evidently, all tablets experienced highs and lows depending upon tech revelations: i.e. announcements, prices, releases. The spike represented by E surrounded HP’s Think Beyond event. Thereafter, the HP TouchPad consistently remained the lowest searched tablet. Until this week. The major climb began on August 19^th, following HP’s announcement that it would discontinue webOS related hardware manufacturing and Canadian Best Buy’s fire sale. This week, the HP TouchPad has been Googled more than any of its competitors, fueled by news, the fire sale, and new TouchPad owners. Our tipster, like many others I am sure, wonders if this influx is merely temporary.

Simply Measured may have answered this for us by its data collection from Twitter. Their chart displays the number of Twitter posts pertaining to the TouchPad, with an increase from 2,000 tweets daily prior to this week to more than 50,000 on August 22^nd. HP’s announcement obviously elicited a reaction involving both the TouchPad and webOS, but as news for fire sales surfaced, the content transitioned to include the new prices. While Twitter talk of the TouchPad has drastically decreased since its peak, we can assume the decline has much to do with its sellout across the nation. If HP does in fact release another batch of the hotcakes, that plunge could reverse [I have to say...I am a bit afraid of HP's hotcakes at this point. - Ed].

Was the fire sale the only way the HP TouchPad could have gained popularity? Looking back at the first graph, our tipster pointed out to us the webOS tablet’s already steady increase over the summer months. During June and July, the TouchPad seemed to be gaining traffic that matched its original spike from February, without a hint for decline. The hike during the end of July can possibly be attributed to the first price drop. People were already taking notice of the HP TouchPad; the tablet was achieving popularity, before the $99 price tag. We greatly appreciate this being brought to light. It provides us with more factors to consider when questioning if HP ‘pulled the plug’ on the TouchPad too soon and if it can remain the talk of the tech town.

Source: Google Trends, mashable.com
Thank you S. Nelson!

About Kayla Ward

Kayla satisfies her cravings for knowlege through her studies at UC Davis and by probing the internet. The Tungsten E gave her a taste of Palm at age 13 and she has been addicted to Palm OS and webOS products ever since. If you cannot find her here or on Twitter @holdinon08, she is probably taking pictures of her two aquatic turtles.

View all posts by Kayla Ward →

JDM

Maybe they’ll change their mind about only releasing the Pre3 in Europe.

Abe

its more like AT&T and other carriers have to change their mind about releasing the Pre3. I’m sure they could still sell it even without a carrier blessing for GSM carriers.

Jason

They could sell it without a carrier, unlocked for 99.00 =)…that’ll sell like hot cakes!

Adaisguy

They still wouldn’t sell. Remember, the only reason why TouchPads are selling now is because they are priced at a quarter of what the competition charges. At $99 the Pre3 would be competing with a range of phones and ecosystems that have bright futures and better features.

Right now the only advantage the TouchPad has is price. Because of carrier discounts, the Pre3 looses that advantage.

Jason

You may be right, but not many unlocked phones sell at 99.00 off contract.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

This *** a $99 Smartphone with no contract is very alluring…
Jeremiah Summers

Can’t name one off the top of my head, even dumb phones sell for over $99 off contract. Most smart phones off contract are over $300. So at a third of it’s price and no contract I would say it would sell especially on T-Mobile as you get a discounted rate if you’re off contract.

Haseeb

Heard HP salesguy say they have the word and factories are still manufacturing TPs :-)

Malette

It is interesting today stopped by my local office depot which still has one on display and since I last stopped in a few weeks ago has a big end aisle display which shows normal pricing. I’m wondering if the second wave will be back to that price? I mean now they have created a demand. Also went to radio shack which didn’t even used to show anything about it and now they have a sign about it up. Neither have any in stock and say they are not expecting more and they did sell at fire price. All this still remains interesting to me. I’m beginning to wonder if whoever has been interested in licensing it wanted HP to show strong user numbers first. Maybe HP loses millions right now, but by creating a demand and community they will make that plus more back in licensing fees. It still all feels like part of a conspiracy theory to me. Of course that could be just because I want webOS to live and thrive.

rmana12

I think this is where HP failed on webOS. I have been saying all along that HP will fail with TouchPad the way how they priced it. I think it’s stupid of them to price it the same as iPad. webOS doesn’t have a market share and because they look at row and columns, they didn’t even think twice to whether it’s the right pice point or not. If I were HP I would have priced the TouchPad $99.00 and $149.00 when it was launched just to get marketshare then maybe price the 2nd gen of TouchPad will be priced at a higher price point once they have the marketshare.

Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.
Malette

I agree. Maybe didn’t need to be so low but nothings wrong with introductory prices of perhaps $299 and $349. Also some better commercials would have been nice. Something with class and direct to the point. I can say apple does a good job with that.

rmana12

I think this is where HP failed on webOS. I have been saying all along that HP will fail with TouchPad the way how they priced it. I think it’s stupid of them to price it the same as iPad. webOS doesn’t have a market share and because they look at row and columns, they didn’t even think twice to whether it’s the right pice point or not. If I were HP I would have priced the TouchPad $99.00 and $149.00 when it was launched just to get marketshare then maybe price the 2nd gen of TouchPad will be priced at a higher price point once they have the marketshare.
rmana12

I think this is where HP failed on webOS. I have been saying all along that HP will fail with TouchPad the way how they priced it. I think it’s stupid of them to price it the same as iPad. webOS doesn’t have a market share and because they look at row and columns, they didn’t even think twice to whether it’s the right pice point or not. If I were HP I would have priced the TouchPad $99.00 and $149.00 when it was launched just to get marketshare then maybe price the 2nd gen of TouchPad will be priced at a higher price point once they have the marketshare.

Anonymous

Still makes me sad to see people selling these for $300 on ebay when I’m having trouble getting a hold of one for $99.

Haseeb

^Agreed^

Malette

Yeah not all fans have $500 or more to spend as much as they’d wish they could. It makes me sadder that people are paying those prices to individuals and not when HP had them on sale previously. Some people sometimes aren’t smart. If no one bought them for this price then these sellers would not want to be stuck with them and would sell them at fire price to at least break even. Demand sets supply pricing as can be seen by HP demand was low so price dropped now demand is high so people can and will raise price. Can’t blame anyone for trying to make some money.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

It is an interesting phenomena to observe. I

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

^Agreed^ x 2. *sigh*
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

^Agreed^ x 2. *sigh*

Haseeb

^Agreed^
Alee

it makes me sad that you weren’t an early adopter

Anonymous

Yikes, that’s a little harsh. We bought our first TouchPad on July 12th. We’re hoping to use the money from our price match refund to pickup a second TouchPad (for my wife) and a TouchStone. I’ve had a Palm Pre since July 2009, and my wife has had hers since June 2009 (day 1).

Gary

Early adopter in Canada. Got screwed on all the US rebates. Told by Best Buy on Saturday to return my TP and then just order new one off the web – theirs were ‘pulled’ because of a recall… They WOULD NOT match the $400 diffeence and would NOT sell their stock because they were being returned. I did what they said I needed to do, and can’t get one, and can’t get my old one back.

Anonymous

oh man, that’s absolutely awful. are you guys able to order from HP.com or do you get a separate website? HP claims they’ll get shipments back soon, which they’ll then resell
Anonymous

oh man, that’s absolutely awful. are you guys able to order from HP.com or do you get a separate website? HP claims they’ll get shipments back soon, which they’ll then resell
Gary

Heard from Best Buy today after I sent in a complaint about the whole situation surrounding the return and re-ordering online of a reduced price Touchpad. They cancelled my order and said they will not be receiving any more of this item. So much for doing what they told me to do. Tried getting one at other place on the weekend, but were told at Future Shop and Staples both that they had none on the floor and the ones in back “weren’t for sale to customers” and they still had plenty online so order one from there… (gotta laugh at the whole debacle)

http://weboscenter.com Matt

But people are actually PAYING that much for them! That’s the odd part that I don’t get. It’s amazing how people, who would have never considered buying a TP before are now paying a $200 premium for the device.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

It’s the mystique factor. They didn’t know or care about webOS. Some may have even read the initial reviews…but now it the software has recieved an update, and there’s talk of porting Android to it, making this a better proposition than the Nook Color. It also shows that HP just didn’t do a good job on marketing…this firesale has opened people’s eyes to what makes webOS stand out from Android and iOS. The people paying $300 on eBay probably didn’t know what the fuss was about webOS.

http://weboscenter.com Matt

But people are actually PAYING that much for them! That’s the odd part that I don’t get. It’s amazing how people, who would have never considered buying a TP before are now paying a $200 premium for the device.

The Touchpad border enforcer

I hate HP for lying to me I called that 1-800-yub-myhp and the man told me to get on the mailing list and hp would let me know when the next batch of touchpads they said they found would be on the website for purchase my wife and I rotated shifts checking their website every ten minutes it seemed and nothing and then I hear that hp sold over 400,000 of these devices in the last 48 hours. where did this take place ? at some fruit stand? Now the pads are all gone and I have to resort to ebay to get one . I hate HP and hope samsung will take up the hardware part and bury HP. I mean I hate to see another American company get hurt but HP you deserve it and Samsung has the balls and the cash to do it so Ill be licking my chops to see the carnage inflicted on you in the not so distant future especially you Leo why dont you retire and go live in the old country(Israel) and see if you can downgrade Israel’s GDP like you’re doing to HP thats all your people think about is tha money. If it doesnt start making money in the very beginning you and your kind jump ship as usual. You(Leo) ruined the company you headed before HP and it looks like your up to your same MO. Dont know how they picked you as president?….must be some more mazeltops on the board as well.

Anonymous

Nice racism, bro.

For the record, a quick 30 seconds of Googling reveals that the man is German.

Don’t get me wrong, he is not a good CEO and has a history of botching hardware (SAP let him go to focus on “products and technology” the very things he’s just run into the ground at HP) BUT nationality has nothing to do with it.

Please don’t take anger from a company’s decisions and funnel it into anti-semitism. Especially here.

gizmo21

At least we germans got the pre3 on firesale @79EUR. Not that i was able to grab one or any touchpad on their crowded website. But it really makes me sad that HP screwed it. Perhaps that Pre3 partial release at least gets some 2.2 doctors for our Pre/Pre2s.
Gr8tfullyblessed

Agreed . . There is no room for that here . . We all say the webos community is the best but comments like that isn’t gonna keep many of our newfound members . . Please take that to xbox live or somewhere else touchpad border enforcer
Jayson

The only thing I want is for webos to last forever, and if we keep fighting for it, it will. LONG LIVE WEBOS.

JDM

Is it possible to ban people for anti-semitic remarks?

Jemojc

I hope so.
Jemojc

I hope so.
Jemojc

I hope so.
Jemojc

I hope so.

AverageJoe

You do a nice pic, girl, but that’s beside the point. You also do a very nice business analysis, in my opinion. Two for two. But the reality is HP didn’t make document editing available, nor did it go for speed/responsiveness of how the Touchpad felt to use. One out of the two was a flaw. But they got zero for two. Out of the game. And they knew it. Thyere’s a rumor that Leo got to use an iPAD for the first time AFTER he launched the Touchpad, and he kind of shrank a little. OK, that’s just B.S. but the point is HP really should have sniffed harder when they looked at the Apple product. Matched it point for point, except for the features and functions where they were able to outclass it. Period. Apple wasn’t technically invincible, but the unprofessional way HP went about things was very sad. And they screwed things up over and over and over. And no amount of whining and no amount of praise/suggestion was gonna get them to shape up. Leo said the Tanker needed to change course. He also said certain things could just happen coz he said they must, coz the was the right way to do stuff. He was right, two for two. But neither happened. Crashed Tanker. HP didn’t respond to his input. Slap it silly. Great game, waiting for next season’s new show.

Anonymous

Nice sexism, bro.

Document editing is coming next week. Too little too late? Yeah, but it is.

Also I’m not entirely sure what all those metaphors are doing at the end, there, but I must admit I agree with you from “Apple wasn’t technically invincible” on. Which is sad, which is why we’re all sad. Not sure how your comment is related to the article though.

Anonymous

To be fair, my comment isn’t really related either, but if I heard someone say “You do a nice pic, girl, but that’s beside the point.” and I didn’t say something, I’d punch myself in the face.

Daveyboy

Exactly. The writer has done an excellent analysis, regardless of gender.
Aver Joe

Just being nice to a person who seems to me to be physically attractive and mentally bright, and who, regardless of gender, has written a good article. Sorry to be a flaming heterosexual. Yes, it ISN’T the point that I think she makes a nice picture, as I said. But I seem to be very politically improper because I simply can’t understand why you would get physically violent with yourself. I will mull it over and try to see what I can learn, and maybe I’ll have a Buddha movement and understand all my sins. But my POINT is that good analyses NOW aren’t the solution. Bluntly, HP has been told over and over by an array of smart people for 5 months that they HAD to have document editing at launch AS THEY sort of promised and didn’t seem to be getting to. And they acted like the input was flubber, and launched with an obviously very narrow pre-release beta test pool that gave no meaningful input, so extensive software resolvable issues were immediately apparent. It is an absolute disgrace that all the talent and human effort on webOS got burned, since webOS had the look and feel, as well as the technical capability, to DOMINATE if properly managed. All the current rubbish aside about further development as software blah blah blah, please know it is now dead. I chose to make this my last visit to this forum, as I have gradually disengaged over the last 5 months from actually using/tweeking webOS due to the absolute pain of trying to work with HP.

thaumato

Uhhh….”Buddha movement” and “sins” don’t make sense in the same idea. Buddha is essentially nihilistic, so sins don’t factor into it. Anyway, consider if you would have said “You do a nice pic, boy, but that’s beside the point” and you will understand why it’s a shitty thing to say.
thaumato

Uhhh….”Buddha movement” and “sins” don’t make sense in the same idea. Buddha is essentially nihilistic, so sins don’t factor into it. Anyway, consider if you would have said “You do a nice pic, boy, but that’s beside the point” and you will understand why it’s a shitty thing to say.

http://equinejointsupplements.blogspot.com mauricio

The information is very interesting. I like it. But I think I have enough money to buy it. Ouch!
Anonymous

Love the new girl. She has brains and looks.
Lou

I agree. The anti semitic comment was in poor taste and missed the target while creating collateral damage. On the other hand… The touchpad would have had good sales if HP had actually gone to their economics 101 class.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=765599054 Roberto Rosa

That’s the sad part…it seems like the very top of HP failed economics 101…how they thought they could go toe-to-toe with Apple without the ammo to back them up is beyond me. I know we’re ALL sounding like arm chair quaterbacks…but even a blind man could see that their strategy was very flawed.

Rjf

It will be interesting to see how those graphs look in a few weeks and months… Please do another in the future.

The TouchPad Explosion: Why, When, and for How Long?

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