Hewlett Packard finally made the leap to join the growing tablet market by releasing the HP TouchPad, but the response for this tablet was poor. Will this be the end for the HP TouchPad? If the reports true, the probable answer is a big "YES".

HP TouchPad was the first tablet manufactured by HP with WebOS- an investment the company acquired from the smartphone manufacturing company Palm. The hype before the official release of this tablet was overwhelming as the company held a big press event in February to trumpet the news that HP would now be joining the tablet market. Despite the big press event, important details regarding the newest HP tablet like shipping date and retail price was not disclosed.

The official release of HP TouchPad was in contrast with the big press event that the company held before. HP does not have any official retail stores to carry their product hence they were dependent on the supposed hype that major retailers would do for their product. This did not happen as many people were not aware of the tablet's release.

After the official release of HP TouchPad, Best Buy announced that they were offering HP TouchPad for only US$99. This was a big drop from the original retail prices of US$399 (16GB) and US$499 (32GB). This prompted consumers to come in droves to different shops and online retailers offering the HP TouchPad with a much lower retail price. The reviews regarding this tablet remained largely negative, but it showed that people are willing to purchase it at a lower price.

HP then announced that the company plans to "open source" their WebOS which is similar to the set-up that Google offers for their Android OS. The company also revealed that they could probably purchase another tablet but the target date for this project would be in 2013.

Based on the reports regarding HP TouchPad, it is indeed on its way out. Despite this outcome, a possible resurrection of an HP tablet could be at hand if WebOS were to thrive with this open source strategy.