Report: HP's TouchPad fails to sell at Best Buy, other retailers

Hewlett-Packard's webOS TouchPad tablet is failing to gain traction in the market, especially at big box retailer Best Buy, according to a report in AllThingsD.

Click here for a video review of the TouchPad.

Click here for a video review of the TouchPad.

The report, which cited unnamed sources, said that Best Buy ordered 270,000 TouchPads and has sold only around 25,000 units. The report also said that Best Buy has told HP that it is unwilling to pay for all of the TouchPads it ordered and wants HP to take them back. HP wants Best Buy to be patient and has dispatched a senior executive to Best Buy to try and smooth over the situation.

Best Buy sells the 16 GB Wi-Fi-only TouchPad for $399.99 and the 32 GB model for $499.99. HP cut $100 off the price of the tablet less than a month after it first went on sale.

HP and Best Buy declined to comment, according to AllThinsgD.

Further, the TouchPad, which went on sale in July as a Wi-Fi only product, is not selling well at other retailers, including Walmart and Fry's,  the report said. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) plans to launch a TouchPad with cellular service, but pricing and launch details haven't been disclosed. 

Early reviews of the TouchPad were mixed, and the market continues to get crowded with tablets looking to take share away from Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad 2. 

According to a recent survey conducted by Robert W. Baird and reported by CNET, 94.5 percent of those surveyed said they were interested in purchasing an iPad. The TouchPad came in second with 10.3 percent.

Meanwhile, HP continues to search for a company to license the webOS platform to, and is interested in bringing the software to home appliances and even cars. "We're looking at expanding the base and bringing to the webOS community an ecosystem that inspires developers out there," said Stephen DeWitt, the head of the webOS business unit for HP, told the Wall Street Journal. He said there is already an "enormous amount of interest," but declined to name companies that might license webOS.

For more:
- see this CNET article
- see this AllThinsgD article
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

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