HP brags that Increase in TouchPad Sales Boosts App Downloads. Seriously?

It seems that there is a serious epidemic spreading around the globe. An epidemic of denial. The symptoms were first observed in the camps of Meego developers, who are apparently still exhibiting signs of denial regarding the death of their "open" operating system, despite Nokia dropping it to "project" status back in February.  Now Intel has said they are also dropping Meego, and replacing it with yet another Linux Foundation project - Tizen.

Then today, HP published their latest email newsletter for webOS developers, with the subject heading 

"Increase in TouchPad Sales Boosts App Downloads". 

In a report on webOS developer meeting in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, HP proudly exclaimed:

... what many developers have continued to experience over these past few weeks. They are seeing more than a 10x increase in sales in their apps over the last month and the momentum is even stronger this month.

But wait... didn't HP kill off the TouchPad? 

On August 18th, HP issued their Q3 earnings highlights, in which they announced:

"HP will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. The devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets."

 So what could have stimulated a "10x increase" in webOS app sales? Well, just two days after killing off the TouchPad, HP launched a fire sale, lowering the price to $99.  This was apparently enough to create a buying frenzy, so much so that HP responded by ensuring prospective buyers of More TouchPads on the Way, in a post on a company blog.

In order to clear inventory of unsold TouchPads, HP lowered the price to $99.

 

I wouldn't look for more TouchPads anytime soon, as HP is now sold out. Prior to its termination, analysts at iSuppli had reported the bill of materials cost for the TouchPad to be $318. With Meg Whitman now at the helm, your best bet is to look on eBay.

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• HP's message to webOS developers - the next chapter?