In Pictures: Tablet flops, flubs and fluffs

HP TouchPad

In perhaps one of the most spectacular face-plants in technology history, HP’s Touchpad launched in July 2011 only to be discontinued the next month. It went from a base price of $500 to $99 over that period. Customers said its performance was sluggish, the user interface was awkward and didn’t offer enough applications. Sales were terrible. Best Buy had 270,000 of the devices in its inventory and managed to sell only 10% at the original price. That’s when the stores started discounting them, but to little effect.