TouchPad复产：惠普赔钱安抚供应商

    惠普（Hewlett-Packard's）周一在博客The Next Bench上宣布将继续生产一批TouchPad。从这份声明，你能听出弦外之音吗？

    尽管此前曾宣布将停止生产webOS硬件设备，但是我们已经决定生产最后一批TouchPad以满足需求。我们不清楚这些设备上市的确切时间或者我们能够提供的确切数量，我们也不能承诺满足所有需求。我们唯一确定的是，要购买这批设备至少还需要等待几个星期。

    没错。玄妙之处就在开头一句话。惠普管理层最近犯了一些非常严重的错误，但还不至于亏本销售产品，而目的只是为了“满足市场需求”。

    虽然这是一款被抛弃的产品，但是当其价格由原来的499美元狂跌到99美元，还是有充分的理由促使我们去购买的——尽管作为已经拥有苹果iPad的人，我想不出什么好理由。

    对于惠普恢复生产新款TouchPad并以如此低价出售的行为，我能认同的唯一原因是来自台北的《电子时报》（Digitimes）周二的报道。

    惠普宣布停止生产TouchPad，最为惊讶的当数上游供应商，据《电子时报》通过消息渠道获悉，他们因此突然面临零部件库存过大的问题。

    消息人士指出，这些上游供应商的库存级别足够生产约10万台7英寸TouchPad，这批产品原本定于第三季度末开始生产，但是惠普突然改变策略，完全打乱了他们的计划。

    解决方案：将这些零部件投入工厂生产以修复与亚洲供应商的关系。之后在对外宣称，这样做完全是从顾客利益出发，从而为自己树立正面形象。

    翻译：秋闲

    Can you spot the dissemblance in the announcement posted Monday on Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) The Next Bench blog?

    Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don't know exactly when these units will be available or how many we'll get, and we can't promise we'll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase.

    That's right. It's there in the first sentence. HP management has made some monumental blunders lately, but it knows better than to sell product at a loss just to "meet unfulfilled demand."

    There may be a lot of reasons -- although as an Apple (AAPL) iPad owner I can't think of any good ones -- to buy a $499 orphaned device when its price suddenly drops to $99.

    But the only reason I can think of for HP to start manufacturing new TouchPads for sale at that price is the one suggested Tuesday by Taipai-based Digitimes.

    It seems no one was more surprised by HP's announcement that it was pulling the plug on the TouchPad than its upstream suppliers, who according to DigiTimes' sources are suddenly suffering from component overload:

    The sources pointed out that the inventory level is capable of producing about 100,000 7-inch TouchPads and was originally set to start production at the end of the third quarter, but HP's sudden change of strategy has completely messed up upstream player's schedules.

    Solution: Repair relations with your Asian suppliers by pushing those components through the factories. And then give it a positive spin by telling your customers that you are doing it just for them.