HP TouchPad doesn’t last a week in Australia, DOA

Last night Hewlett-Packard went and shafted WebOS, and by extension the hardware that runs it, including the TouchPad. Although the TouchPad has been available for around six weeks in the United States, the retail giant down under, Harvey Norman, had exclusive rights to the Australian release. The Australian launch of the device was only 5 days ago… leaving the TouchPad with only 4 days on sale in Australia.

Yes, that is right. You can count the number of days on one hand.

As you can imagine, new owners of the device would be quite annoyed (to put it nicely). That is why Harvey Norman is offering those 1000 Australian owners of the device a full refund or exchange, no questions asked. Harvey Norman will be contacting all the owners who have bought the device, in regards to their offer.

I can see Harvey Norman having a very sour relationship with HP now. The exclusive rights, advertising, stock placement, as well as training of staff for the release of the TouchPad would add up to quite a few doubloons, and to have that all thrown out of the window as a loss would be infuriating. After all, we know that technology is forever evolving and changing, but so soon after the release date of a product is unheard of.

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