HP's TouchPad - a bomb

Business Insider is officially calling HP's TouchPad a bomb. I am surprised that it took them 6+ weeks to call it! The TouchPad opened to weak reviews. HP tried desperately to compete on price. None of it worked. RIP TouchPad.

HP has tried its hand in consumer electronics multiple times and failed. Who remembers HP foray into handhelds with Jornada and iPAQ? HP even tried their hand in HP TV and HP Camera.

Most markets have three dominant players:

• Hertz, Avis, National
• American, United, Delta
• Nike, Adidas, Reebok
• CBS, NBC, ABC
• etc.

There are other players in each market, but usually three of them dominate and control 80-90% of the market.

Only Google seems to have cracked the nut when it comes to competing with Apple. They have taken a different approach - by licensing Android (although, it will be interesting to see how this plays out following Google's acquisition of Motorola). WebOS, RIM and Microsoft attempted to become the third player in the mobile race. With WebOS dying and RIM losing ground, Microsoft (and its Nokia alliance) has a great opportunity to become the third player here.

Winning this is significant because there is a lot at stake. It is expected that the number of connected mobile devices will exceed 15 billion by 2015! Come on, Ballmer, time to break out of your stupor and bring your passion to the mobile market.