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Even if they sold 1 million of them at a loss, that'd still put them about 30 million units behind Apple - so still a distant loser, especially with Android bei
by glhaynes 15y ago
Even if they sold 1 million of them at a loss, that'd still put them about 30 million units behind Apple - so still a distant loser, especially with Android being in the game too. Besides, then all they'd have bought is a chance at selling to roughly that same small group again next year, again at a loss because most of the folks that only bought this year because it was super-cheap aren't going to be willing to buy at $500 next year.
The key to a sustainable platform is to make a profit on each device or be able to make it up with highly profitable post-device sales (video games for consoles or blades for razors).
- mgkimsal 15y ago"Android" is not a standard hardware platform - it's pretty much whatever any manufacturer wants to ship. The TouchPad had the potential to be much more akin to the iPad/iOS line because one company was controlling the hardware experience.
- glhaynes 15y agoI agree it had that potential in theory, but in practice it had nearly none of the market advantages of the iPad. It didn't have the Apple (or iPod / iPhone) brand name to catapult off of nor a large base of users that already own similar devices; it didn't have many apps nor much developer support; and, importantly, it didn't have the iTunes ecosystem of easily-obtained media. It'd be awfully tough to out-Apple Apple right now. Without some really strong differentiator, I don't know why anybody - least of all those at HP - would have thought they had a chance.