HP has announced that they are going to stop making super cheap tablets because sales have slowed to a crawl and there is too much competition at the bottom of the barrel. Instead, the company will focus on detachables, hybrids and expensive business tablets.
If you are a loyal HP user you might have noticed a number of products disappearing from their main website. A number of their low-end Android tablets have been removed and devices such as the HP 7 G2 tablet and HP 8 G2 tablet — have been out of stock for months, and it’s likely they won’t be available again. Ditto with the HP Stream 7, which was a fairly successful lower end device.
“We are going to focus where there is profitability and growth and will not chase the low-end tablet market. We are focusing on business mobility to deliver tablets built for field service, education, retail and healthcare,” said Ron Coughlin, president for personal systems at HP.
Research firm IDC has just released a comprehensive report and it is very likely that this is the straw that broke the camels back for HP. The key takeaways is that tablet shipments will total 211.3 million in 2015, a decline of 8.1% compared to 2014. Tablets with screens smaller than 9 inches will have a 57.7% share of shipments in 2015, down from 64.1% in 2014. Whereas tablets with screens ranging from 9 to 13 inches will grow to 41.9% in 2015 from 35.8% in 2014.
HP has changed their website to focus more on business tablets that are ranging in price from $700 to $1200. It is very likely that they will release new models next year that are designed to heavily compete against the iPad Pro, Surface 4 and Google Pixel C. I think HP needs to offer features that will encourage people to buy into their ecosystem like 4K screens and 3D cameras.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.