Though it was no surprise HP's webOS tablet was not selling well, HP's decision to give up on it and essentially abandon the operating system they paid $1.2 billion for less than a year and a half ago was a lot less expected. The TouchPad (pictured above at a liquidation ready $99, or about 20% of what it originally retailed at) sold so poorly that several days ago Best Buy reportedly had sold only 25,000 out of about 270,000 that it stocked initially. This was about a month and a half after the TouchPad debuted, and just a day or two before the fire sale currently underway.
According to an interview given Engadget, Stephen DeWitt, the head of HP's webOS global business unit, made clear that the decision to ax the TouchPad "doesn't mean -- in any way, shape or form, at all -- that we are abandoning webOS." However, HP has made it clear they've lost all interest in the consumer market, since at the same time they have revealed they intend to spin off the Personal Systems Group (PSG), which is responsible for making the laptops and desktops that, besides printers, most consumers know them for.
If you're looking for the HP TouchPad at that $99 price - hey, it's good hardware for the value, even if the OS is being largely abandoned - you can take a look here to see when it will be back in stock.
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