After RIM and Microsoft, Apple has taken out HP

After RIM and Microsoft, Apple has taken out another old technology giant this week, Hewlett-Packard. In a dramatic turn of events, the world’s largest PC vendor announced last night that it’s discontinuing all of its WebOS products, including the recently launched TouchPad and its Pre Smartphones, and will be looking to spin off its computer business.

The motive behind this decision? The iPad. Indeed, the TouchPad hasn’t sold, almost at all, and the PC business has been slowing down over the last few years as consumers move to iPads (and probably Macbooks). As explained by HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker:

“Consumers are changing the use of their PC. The tablet effect is real and sales of the TouchPad are not meeting our expectations. The velocity of change in the personal device marketplace continues to increase as the competitive landscape is growing increasingly more complex especially around the personal computing arena, the tablet effect is real”.

In other words: the iPad effect is real and we can’t compete.