$99 HP TouchPad Sale: HP Downfall a 'Tragedy,' Said Steve Jobs
In a book chronicling the life of the late Steve Jobs, journalist Walter Isaacson recalls the life and style of the late innovative thinker.
In the book called, iSteve: The book of Jobs, which will be released in early 2012, Isaacson illustrates for the world a portrait of Apple’s former CEO through the eyes of Jobs himself, his family, colleagues, and competitors.
In the book, Isaacson recalls Jobs’ final visit to the company he helped to create and establish. According to Issacson, Jobs told Apple employees that he hoped that he had left a strong enough legacy the company would never face the same fate as Apple competitor, Hewlett Packard.
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Jobs reportedly said, “Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they left it in good hands. But now it’s being dismembered and destroyed. It’s tragic. I hope I’ve left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple.”
The untimely death of Steve Jobs captured headlines earlier this month as the former Apple CEO died of pancreatic cancer leaving behind him a family and a globally lauded and respected company.
Hewlett Packard has faced challenges competing on the technology market with companies producing products that are considered more reliable, reputable, and market friendly, such as Apple.
This summer HP make the difficult decision to drop out of the competitive tablet business and launched a fire sale of its HP TouchPad tablet as the company struggled to garner demand for their tablet, similar to the Apple’s iPad, but not nearly as widely popular.
HP originally cut the price of its tablet in hopes to attract consumers, but still found little demand for the product. With the decision to drop out of the market, the company slashed the price of their tablet down to $99 and caused a national frenzy with people attempting to get their hands on the undervalued gadget.
Some tech experts argued back in August when the nation was inundated with TouchPad frenzy that even with the discounted price, the tablet was simply not worth the bargain. Tech experts argued that the device struggles from both hardware and software issues and that the product has no future.
Nevertheless, technology gurus have not been able to subdue consumer interest in the cheap TouchPad, and HP ultimately decided to release a second and final run of their TouchPads, which are rumored to come out by the end of this month.
Once HP finally announces it has released the last of its remaining TouchPads the nation is likely to go into a frenzy once again over the product, however, the popularity of tablet only emerged once it was cheap, suggesting that HP's sudden popularity means little in terms of rebuilding its reputation and that the "tragedy" that Steve Jobs mentioned continues.
