Touch Pad

This is not a Touch Pad but its main rival the iPad.

The perspicacious Mrs. Summons was on the phone the other day to Hewlett Packard to purchase some cartridges for our small printer. The rep offered her one of their now defunct Touch Pads for $99 (including shipping overnight).  At that price, she could not resist the offer, and I have to say it's a fine piece of kit.  We keep it on our coffee table and use it for looking up things on the 'Net.
Lots of people have bought, and are delighted with its main rival the iPad, and so far I can't see much of a difference, having used them both.  The Touch Pad has some odd procedures however that take some getting used to.
But there has to be someone at HP looking for a job.  How could you bring a product like this to market, go through the entire manufacturing process, advertise it on TV (no cheap deal) and then withdraw it after only 48 days?
I noticed the Touch Pad when it was advertised, and wondered if it might be a less expensive alternative to the iPad as I could see the use for it.  But it was priced about the same and also for some models a little higher.  This was not good marketing on the part of the firm.  My experience of American companies is that they are dynamite at getting all the sums right for this type of product.  What could possibly have gone wrong?  I would not be happy if I was a shareholder.
Now I'm no genius at this type of thing, but let's imagine that as they are selling off their entire stock for $99, why not start off selling a few thousand at that price as an introductory offer, then increase the price once you have got some market share.  They would have been no worse off and they'd not have to slink off with their heads hanging in shame.  You can be sure that some people there are changing their resumes to exclude any reference to the Touch Pad!