HP Offers webOS Developers $150 TouchPads

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beayn

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Honestly I think they should be giving them to developers if they want a real incentive. $150 is the firesale price that thousands of regular people already got theirs at.
 

STravis

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Not sure where this will lead to (maybe the same path of the Zaurus 5000) but why would a developer pay money for a tablet that has been discontinue which runs an OS that has a shaky future.

Why wouldn't developers focus on the established players?
 

belardo

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The point? They are HP and they have their heads up their butts and are obviously way over-paid considering how stupid the board is. They have no direction, no talent, no original product... for the most part, the only thing that makes the different from the new "Commodore" is that HP has a lot more money.
 

aracheb

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[citation][nom]longliverock1974[/nom]Still waiting for my E-Mail from HP about the 2nd batch of Touchpads they are producing.[/citation]
sit down. they announced long ago there will be no second batch. Reliability on HP product and continued service is as reliable as The dice table in a casino room.
 

shqtth

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They need to build up the developers.

Anyways this is great news :)


They had loaner programs but discontinued those. :( But now at $150 to own who is going to complain.
 

LongLiveRock1974

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[citation][nom]aracheb[/nom]sit down. they announced long ago there will be no second batch. Reliability on HP product and continued service is as reliable as The dice table in a casino room.[/citation]

Oh? Well sh!t. Last I heard was they were going to do a 2nd batch due to popular demand. They just wen't sure how many or when they would be released. I forget what date Tom's ran the article, but I didn't see an update since. Sorry for my confusion.
 

ta152h

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[citation][nom]STravis[/nom]Not sure where this will lead to (maybe the same path of the Zaurus 5000) but why would a developer pay money for a tablet that has been discontinue which runs an OS that has a shaky future.Why wouldn't developers focus on the established players?[/citation]

In a "word", $150. Even if you don't develop for it, it's a nice price for the product, so you buy it for that. If HP announces in the next few weeks they are leveraging the platform, even better. Of course, you have to ask yourself why HP would be doing this, and the only logical explanation is the one I gave. They want them in developers hands because they are going to keep going with the platform. When they make the announcement, they hit the floor running.

Now that they got rid of that blight called Leo, they have to make decisions and make them without equivocation. Their back and forth nonsense has created exactly the poisonous doubt you mentioned. At this point, everything they do has to be to erase exactly that doubt, and show people they now have commitments. I've never seen a debacle like this before, with all this indecisiveness, and it's hurt HP, and it's going to hurt them going forward. But, putting TouchPads in developers hands, for cheap, and announcing they are going forward with WebOS for at least five years, will at least mitigate some of the damage. They need to make a statement like that, and guarantee a lifespan, or any announcement about continued development will lack the strength to make other people commit. The need to be decisive, strong, and unequivocal. Anything less, and it's going to die anyway.
 

shqtth

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We would like to thank you for your interest in the TouchPad Developer Device Purchase Program. We currently have more requests for coupons than we have devices and will not be accepting any further requests.

If you have already submitted a request for a coupon, we are currently processing requests. Remember, coupons issued are only good through November 27, 2011, and while supplies last. We thank you for your patience and look forward to seeing your applications in the webOS App Catalog!
 

shqtth

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Why when HP try to do something, they always underestimate the demand?

Even if they have too many requests this is a good thing, as without developers they can't sell their product in the future. There is only so much you can do with an emulator, having a device in hand helps development big time, and lets you see and feel what the end user will experience.
 

shqtth

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I hope HP does some smart processing, so that all the touchpads don't end up on ebay.

*analyze IP login activity of the dev accounts (look for dups)
*check account signup activity
*Account age
*limit some accounts to 1 only
*Do some sort of background check to see if the person is real
*Check to see if the company/website is real


I think its crazy how many people just bought the device to resell it. I don't see what the point is to resell it, as its a good tablet, and making $50 and paying ebay $25 is pointless, unless you have a large quantity of them to make it worth selling them. Then again, how did someone end up with such a large quantity?




I can't believe how cheap people are 'wow i will buy a touchpad and screw a person who really wants one out of one, and then resell it for $50 more but I'm an idiot and sell on ebay, so my profit will not be much, but hey, its worth screwing someone over for $25'. Those people just need to get job. It was really hard to get a touchpad in the first place, so the people that did that have no life other then to make that $25.
 

eddieroolz

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Though I'm sure HP has good intentions in doing this, I can't help but think that webOS is, for all intents and purposes, dead. There's a team of people working to port Android over to TouchPad and once that's done, I'm sure a large percentage of the TouchPads will immediately be converted.
 
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