Hewlett Packard shocked the industry by dumping its Touchpad tablet just weeks after its touted launch. Why did the company get out of tablets? One reason is probably that HP’s tablet was very much like many other Android tablets. It wasn’t perfecting the category.
Consider the most popular consumer electronics — the iPad, iPod, iPhone, Kindle, and Netflix — none were first in their respective categories, but each one was (and remains) the very best of class. There were tablets before the iPad, but when the iPad launched, it was the best. Similarly, there were electronic book readers before the Kindle, but none were better.
The problem for all of these Android tablets is that none of them are better than the iPad. Sorry, but it’s true. As such, they become also-rans. Sure, there’s a market for Android devices, but there are simply too many of them out there for all to be successful. No Android tablet can be the best tablet. HP saw this writing on the wall and dumped the tablet. From where I sit, it’s a smart, gutsy decision. The company decided it didn’t want to compete for a tiny piece of the tablet pie.
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