Hewlett-Packard has launched its first tablet PC, the US$499 TouchPad, in the US amid a major marketing blitz costing millions of dollars – but without attracting long lines of would-be buyers like those Apple drew for the launch of its iPad and iPad 2 tablets. It’s not known when or if the device will be launched in Australia.
Hewlett-Packard has launched its first tablet PC, the US$499 TouchPad, in the US amid a major marketing blitz costing millions of dollars – but without attracting long lines of would-be buyers like those Apple drew for the launch of its iPad and iPad 2 tablets.It’s not known when or if the device will be launched in Australia.
Echoing an Apple tactic, H-P deployed scores of employees to man special kiosks erected inside about 100 Best Buy stores across the USA. The company said its workers will be stationed in the Best Buy stores until the end of the year in an operation the company has dubbed “Top Gun.”
Since April, H-P has worked closely with retailers, commercial resellers and its own salesforce for large businesses to drum up demand for the TouchPad, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
It has also been pushing business-software makers to develop versions of their programs for the new device – which uses the little known WebOS operating system – and has begun a multimillion national advertising campaign around the TouchPad.
H-P is only too aware that it is starting late in the tablet business, dominated by Apple’s iPad, and with a growing number of entrants from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, HTC, RIM and Acer.
“We know we’re the fifth man in a four-man race,” said Richard Kerris, the H-P executive in charge of developer relations. But he declined to say how much H-P is spending on the TouchPad launch.
Sales in H-P’s PC business fell more than 5pc in the April quarter from last year, compared with Apple’s nearly 32pc increase in Mac sales and its huge sales of iPads – more than 25 million in just over a year.
