TouchPad: HP Calls "Do-Over!"

HP is knocking 50 bucks of the price of its WebOS-powered TouchPads, and doing some important tinkering under the hood, too:

HP began rolling out the webOS 3.0.2 update to its TouchPad tablet on Monday evening. The software update is expected to improve the performance and stability of the device and also includes a number of enhancements. According to HP’s change log, webOS 3.0.2 offers improvements to the calendar, email, music, photos and videos, and web browser applications. Users should now see faster scrolling inside email with improved message content and image display. In addition, HP has reduced audio skipping while the TouchPad is multitasking and has improved the speed and accuracy of text assist.

This is what so frustrates me about the TouchPad. For the way I work, WebOS might just be a better choice than the iPad. But I’ve used one, and it was pretty awful. Unreliable scrolling, unresponsive screen rotations, and apps took forever to load. Even the email app, which should pop up instantly, had me wondering if I had enough time to clip my nails.

HP should have gotten these details right out of the gate. Customers see the snappy iPad ads on TV, then go play with a TouchPad on display, and wonder, “Why doesn’t this thing work?” Then they go buy an iPad.

There’s no telling how many customers HP has alienated by shipping a beta and asking iPad 2 prices for it.