HP should reconsider dumping TouchPad -Canalys

 HELSINKI, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co (HP)
 should reconsider its decision to dump its TouchPad
tablet since the device could double the value of the PC
division HP plans to spin off, technology research firm Canalys
said in a note to clients.	

 HP stunned markets in August by saying it may shed its PC
business -- the world's largest after the $25 billion
acquisition of Compaq in 2002 -- while at the same time killing
webOS-based phones and the TouchPad tablet which was launched
only six weeks earlier.	

 HP slashed the price of its tablet to $99 the weekend after
announcing the TouchPad's demise, igniting an online frenzy and
prompting long lines to form at retailers as bargain-hunters
chased down a gadget that had hitherto failed to excite
consumers. 	

 "The TouchPad was overpriced at launch and did not sell.
This led HP to draw a premature conclusion that the product
category had failed," Canalys analysts said in a research note.	

 Canalys said the price cut had helped make TouchPad the
hottest brand in HP's entire portfolio, gathering more interest
than anything from HP in more than 10 years.	

 "The TouchPad has become the 'must-have' technology product
of 2011. Perhaps no other technology vendor, apart from Apple,
has ever created such hype for a technology product," the
research note said.	

 Apple Inc created the tablet or pad market with its
iPad only last year and still dominates the segment. It has sold
some 30 million of the devices, which are priced from about
$500.	

 "HP has established a lead in the race to be the number two
behind Apple in the pad business but the window of opportunity
will begin to close if delays occur," Canalys said.	

 Helped by aggressive pricing and hype around the TouchPad,
HP could achieve and maintain 10 percent share of the global
market for media tablets, the research group said.	

 Canalys said a 10 percent market share of tablets could
double or triple the PC unit's estimated value of between $8
billion and $10 billion.	
	
 (Reporting By Tarmo Virki; Editing by David Holmes)	
 

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