Data Monday: A TouchPad History in Numbers

by August 22, 2011

Like many computing hardware companies trying to stay relevant in the post-PC era, Hewlett-Packard decided to build and launch a touch-based tablet computer. It didn't go so well.

  • Hewlett-Packard acquired Palm for $1.2 billion in April of 2010 (source)
  • Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad tablet (running Palm's WebOS) launched July 1 and was priced at $499 for a 16 GB version and $599 for 32 GB of storage. This is the same as Apple's iPad 2 prices. (source)
  • WebOS featured a few thousand apps at launch on July 1, with just a little more than 300 designed specifically for the Touchpad tablet itself. (source)
  • Apple had about 3,000 iPad specific apps and 185,000 compatible apps available at the iPad's launch. (source)
  • Six weeks after launching the TouchPad, Hewlett-Packard dropped the price of a 16GB HP TouchPad to $399 and 32GB for $499. (source)
  • One week later Hewlett-Packard announced it would stop making WebOS hardware put the TouchPad on "firesale" price of $99 [down from $399] and for the 16GB version and $150 [down from $499] for the 32GB model. (source)
  • Best Buy allegedly only sold 25,000 units since the July 1st launch date. (source)
  • Hewlett-Packard sold 350,000 TouchPads on fire sale prices this weekend. (source)
  • The Hewlett-Packard TouchPad 32GB costs $328 to make, $10 more than iPad 2. (source)
  • This means Hewlett-Packard is taking a significant hit on each device sold, as they will likely subsidize retailers liquidating. (source)
  • Hewlett-Packard tested webOS on an iPad. It ran over twice as fast as the TouchPad. (source)