HP: Surface is 'slow and a little kludgey'
Our own Robert Johnson might love his Microsoft Surface tablet, but HP's head of PC, Todd Bradley, isn’t quite so keen. In an interview with IDG Enterprise, Bradley dismisses Microsoft’s foray into the PC hardware market claiming he doesn’t see the new tablet as a threat.
"I'd hardly call Surface competition", he says, before going on to explain his reasons. "One, very limited distribution. It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it. I just don't think it's competitive. It's expensive." He also states that consumers haven't taken to the Windows RT tablet either. "Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe. If you want to go to any of the 30 Microsoft Stores in the United States to buy one, I think you should probably do that".
Tweet #betanews, win HP TouchPad
It's another day, and another giveaway. Actually, it's a day late. We received so many submissions to the HP TouchPad caption contest, featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, that we delayed the followup contest by a day.
This new contest ends at 11:59:59 am ET on Saturday December 31, 2011. We'll announce winners some time next week. I'm being iffy on when because we'd rather announce caption contest winners first. But given the number of really good submissions, from which one winner will be randomly chosen, we don't want to rush that one too fast. To qualify for the new contest, you must follow BetaNews on Twitter.
Write a caption, win an HP TouchPad
Do you remember in September, when HP practically gave away TouchPads, for 99 bucks? We tried to get two, and thought we failed, but they eventually came. We saved them up for one of several end-of-year contests. It's our way of saying thanks to you for being a part of the BetaNews community.
Today we start out with the first of the two TouchPads. We'll give away the other tomorrow and two other gadgets -- that many of you will like loads more -- through New Years Day. Your challenge is simple: Write a caption to this photo of Steve Ballmer. Microsoft's CEO will deliver his last Consumer Electronics Show keynote in about a dozen days. We'll pick the best and let chance choose the winner. You have until 11:59:59 pm ET today -- that's December 28, 2011 -- to submit your caption, either in comments or by emailing joe at betanews dot com.
PlayBook, TouchPad steal share from Android tablets
Android's recent success in the tablet market seems to have hit a minor roadblock, as increased competition from RIM's PlayBook and now HP's fire-saled TouchPad chip away at its slice of the pie. Apple seems unaffected for the time being, with its market share increasing quarter-to-quarter.
Apple took a 68.3 percent share in the second quarter, up about 3 percent from the previous period, according to research firm IDC. Android tablet share on the other hand dropped significantly, falling to 26.8 percent from 34 percent in the first quarter.
Even with drastic price reduction, TouchPads still get 50GB free cloud storage
One of the nice bonuses of the HP TouchPad is that it comes with a lifetime 50GB cloud storage account from Box for free. This is exactly ten times more storage than they offer standard users on their free tier.
With the sudden discontinuation of the TouchPad and the subsequent liquidation of all stock, this little bonus looks a lot sweeter, but we wondered if Box could pull out of the deal due to behind-the-scenes agreements and arrangements.
Best Buy nukes tablet partners, resumes HP TouchPad sales
So much for my heaping praise on Best Buy. The retailer has decided to unload its unsold stock of TouchPads after all. It's an atomic blast that will have grave consequences for Best Buy and, more importantly, its other tablet partners. Apple might just laugh all the way to the bank.
The problem is this: Best Buy is sitting on an inventory of as many as 245,000 TouchPads -- or was yesterday. Today, who knows how many there will be for how long. By midday yesterday, cheap TouchPads were sold out pretty much everywhere, except HP online. Today, Best Buy owns TouchPad sales and already has sold out its online stock. Now it's up to retail stores to clear inventory. Last week, my local Best Buy sold the 16GB TouchPad for $499.99. Today it's $99 -- $149 for the 32GB model -- for an attractive 9.7-inch tablet, running the well-reviewed WebOS.
What does the glut of cheap HP TouchPads mean for Apple and Android tablet sales?
If you're trying to get a $99 TouchPad but can't find it anywhere, blame Best Buy. Based on calls placed to a half-dozen of the stores today, Best Buy has refused to sell its huge stock of HP tablets, choosing to return them to HP instead. It's probably cheaper for HP to dump the TouchPads -- as in a landfill -- then to sell them. You can thank Best Buy, which is sitting on an estimated 245,000 units, for that and partly for the mess at HP's online store today.
But there's sense -- loads of it -- for Best Buy shipping back unsold TouchPads rather than putting the soon-to-be obsolete devices into the hands of greedy geeks. HP, which is spending more than $100 million liquidating tablet stock, will compensate Best Buy for inventory. Better to take that cash rather than collapse sales of other tablets and quite possibly create unrealistic expectations among regular shoppers about what tablets should sell for.
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