Price & Information Systems: HP TouchPad - Essay Example

Price & Information Systems: HP TouchPadHP recently launched its touchpad by acquiring the operating system from Palm. HP spent more than 2billion dollars in acquiring the WebOS that was expected to be used for its Touchpad. However, there were a lot of speculations and criticism for the operating system’s credibility, HP’s management was quite confident over the system and put all their efforts in the touchpad’s manufacturing. Nevertheless, they felt the heated competition from Apple who was about to launch the iPad 2.

To be in the competitive race, Hp expanded its team members and put more pressure on their technical teams to make the product available in the market earlier. In doing so, they took all the shortcuts and able to launch Touchpad 9 months earlier than its expected launching date. When HP’s touchpad was in the market, customers did not pay much attention to it when they could buy a sleeker and faster device from a well-established company, apple with almost the same price. As a result, HP was only able to get 1% of the market share that was quite disappointed and devastating for the company.

Reacting to this situation, company shocked the tech world saying that it would discontinue the touchpad and withdraw it from the market. Also, they slashed the price of Touchpad 16 GB and 32GB from $399 to $99 and $499 to $149 respectively.Right decisionSeeing the demand and likeness of consumers for iPad 2, it was unrealistic to sell the product that had been criticized on flawed operating system and slower in comparison to its competitor, Apple. iOS had so many advantages over WebOS, for instance they had thousands of applications ready to be used on iPad 2 while WebOS had very limited.

The touch system was more efficient in Apple’s product. It was almost impossible for consumers to buy the product on same price so, HP made the right decision of decreasing the price of Touchpad.Price at startPricing for TouchPad has been the major concern for the company and was one of the major causes of failure of ToucPad in the market. Customer’s preferred buying Apple’s iPad 2 on the same price, however, when the company offered a discount rate on the TouchPad, people rushed to the stores to buy the TouchPad and it seemed that HP’s management is heading in the right direction.

Also, it clearly showed that they have priced it too high to enter in the market where they have a competition with cash cows, apple and android.Alternative PlanThe failure of the project depends on many things ranging from manufacturer’s fault to the project management’s strategies to be implemented. That is what happened with HP Touchpad. Hp Touchpad’s management system did not reasonably plan the product and ran a rat race to get the product out in the market in the shortest time. If they had given more time to their technical gurus a better quality and more efficient product can be seen.

Moreover, project management’s strategy to compete with market leaders’ apple and android was a bad decision. They were well-established and have satisfied their customers for years. It was not easy to shift the customer on a new product unless it makes a big difference (Perenson, 2011). They could perform better if they had launched the TouchPad on a lower price in first place and targeted to take the third share of the market and rather than competing with the giants of the technology.

Later, when they feel that they have satisfied their customer’s with a satisfying product, they could think of competing the race with market leaders. Re launching the productThere is always a need of improvement and individuals tend to buy different products providing high quality and best price. HP should learn from its past experience and should definitely come back in the market and by re-launching the Touchpad with a slashed price. However, it is very essential for them to do the proper market research before re-launching the product.

They should take enough time in processing a handy device that can take a separate stand in the market. They should also learn from the experience that they had tremendous sales of TouchPad on a lower price that clearly showed that people are interested in buying a good product but with a lower price. References1. Perenson, M. (2011). Hp touchpad review: Not ready for the tablet big leagues. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/231400