Hey HP, what if...

So, everyone is talking about the (impending) death of webOS and the devices that HP had developed to run the operating system. The fact that HP is getting out of the mobile OS and and the consumer PC market all together still seems like a crazy move to most of us outsiders. I'll admit, although I didn't have a Pre or a Touchpad, I hate to see webOS go. You see, webOS is the decedent of the original Palm OS, which I have fond memories of. Although it was rudimentary by today's smartphone standards, the palm pilot (I had a Handspring, actually) and later the Treo were pretty good devices back in the day. I also enjoyed the fact that the Palm desktop software always played nice with my Macs. Honestly, the main reason I didn't get a Palm Pre when they came out on the market was because the keys on the keyboard were just so small. I think I would have enjoyed the OS, although my sister went through 3 different Pre's that failed or broke for various reasons. No matter how good the OS is you have to pair it with good hardware. See Apple and HTC as examples...

Today CNN.com posted an article titled "HP: More discounted TouchPads coming, $75 smartphones in Europe" In this article CNN quoted a statement issued by HP which said in part that they were discontinuing the webOS products because "WebOS devices have not gained enough traction with consumers."

Here's the kicker: The HP touchpad is virtually sold out everywhere. At $99 to $149 the HP servers couldn't keep up with the demand. According to several news reports, Best Buy had 270,000 Touchpads that they couldn't sell...they were asking HP for their money back.

Without spending days researching the numbers, let's just say that Amazon bought at least as many. And let's suppose that HP had at least as many in their warehouses available for direct buy.Yes, Martha, that's at least 810,000 Touchpads out in the wild. Seems to me that's a whole lot of traction...an almost instant customer base. One could argue that these customers don't care how the tablet performs, they just want a deal. But still, you now have 810,000 potentially new customers, many of which may be trying webOS for the first time.

So, HP, what if you simply write off your losses and continue to support and develop the Touchpad and Pre 3 phones? You've now gotten exposure to close to a million new customers...could be an opportunity to grow the brand and improve the OS. Perhaps you could be the first company to develop a sub-$200 tablet that people who can't justify the price of an iPad will want to buy. Just an idea...oh, and my consulting fees are dirt cheap if you're interested.