日前有报道称，零售商百思买（Best Buy ）要求惠普（Hewlett-Packard）回购其库存的全部未售出平板电脑TouchPad，这个消息来得真不是时候。惠普预定于上周四发布其第三季度财报，尽管TouchPad在该公司全部业务中所占比例极小，但它近来吸引了多方关注。

    祸不单行的是，惠普的核心业务也表现不佳。分析人士下调评级以及竞争对手戴尔（Dell）下调预期之后，惠普的股价于上周三下跌超过4%。

    【上周四下午2点更新：彭博新闻（Bloomberg News）报道，惠普计划拆分其PC部门，并正在进行谈判，欲以100亿美元收购软件制造商Autonomy，以便致力于利润率更高的企业软件和服务业务。这一路线与IBM颇为类似，后者也曾是硬件制造商巨头。该报道发表后，惠普的股价处于波动，截至周四下午2点，下跌了约4.5%。】

    【周四下午三点半更新：惠普表示其计划宣布公司将停止运营webOS设备，尤其是TouchPad和webOS手机。惠普仍将继续探索优化webOS软件价值的方法。】

    看来惠普在TouchPad身上吃了场彻头彻脑的败仗。惠普平板电脑的定价与iPad相当，但这样的价格完全无法与后者竞争。即使惠普不断打折也无济于事。据报道，百思买库存了27万部TouchPad，但仅仅卖出了不到十分之一，现在百思买希望将剩余的TouchPad退回。

    简直是太落魄了。五月份的时候，惠普高管还放出豪言，TouchPad最终将超越苹果（Apple）iPad。不过目前为止，还没有任何一款平板电脑能够追上iPad的步伐。

    与此同时，惠普的PC业务也表现不佳。PC业务在惠普营收中占据的份额最大，但就整个行业来看，它的利润稀薄，销量也在放缓。PC业务是惠普最不赚钱的业务，正因为如此，惠普一直在探寻利润更高的业务。从某种程度而言，这也解答了为何当初惠普TouchPad定价过高。

    投资者们都寄希望在周四能听到来自惠普其它两大业务——网络和服务的好消息。作为马克•赫德（一年前，赫德因为性骚扰丑闻离任）的继任者，惠普现任首席执行官李艾科指责赫德忽视了上述两大业务，相比于硬件业务，网络和服务业务能带来更高的利润率。

    但是，李艾科不可能一直把责任推给之前的管理层。上周三下调惠普评级的金融机构BMO Capital分析师凯斯•巴赫曼指出：“……之前的管理层没有提供（收入）指引，导致三个季度表现不佳”。确实如此。

    译者：项航

    A report that Best Buy wants Hewlett-Packard to buy back all the TouchPad tablet computers that the retailer is storing, unsold, couldn't have been timed worse. HP is slated to announce its third-quarter results on Thursday, and while the TouchPad makes up only a tiny sliver of the company's business, it has been garnering the most attention recently.

    It doesn't help that HP's (HPQ) core businesses aren't doing so well either. The company's stock fell more than 4 percent on Wednesday after analyst downgrades and grim forecast by PC rival Dell (DELL).

    (Update Thursday 2 p.m.: HP is planning to spin off its PC unit and is in talks to buy software maker Autonomy for $10 billion in order to concentrate on its higher-margin enterprise software and services businesses, Bloomberg News reported. It's a similar trajectory to the one taken by IBM (IBM), also once a hardware powerhouse. HP's stock has been volatile since the news was reported. As of 2 p.m Thursday, it was down about 4.5 percent.)

    (Update 2 Thursday 3:30 p.m.: HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.)

    The TouchPad appears to be a total flop. HP priced it similarly to the iPad, with which it hasn't been favorably compared. A series of discounts hasn't helped much. Best Buy (BBY) has reportedly sold fewer than 10% of the 270,000 TouchPads it has in its inventory, and would like its money back on the rest.

    That's quite a comedown since May, when one HP exec predicted that the TouchPad would eventually overtake Apple's iPad (AAPL). Not that any other tablets are having much luck catching up with the iPad.

    Meanwhile, HP's PC business isn't doing so great either. PCs represent the company's biggest chunk of revenue, but margins are thin and sales are slow industrywide. It's the least profitable part of HP's business, which is why the company is looking around for something with fatter margins -- which may to some degree explain the initial overpricing of the TouchPad.

    Investors on Thursday will be looking for good news in two other areas of business: networking and services. CEO Leo Apotheker has blamed the regime of former CEO Mark Hurd (who was ousted a year ago amid scandal) for neglecting these areas, which offer much better margins than hardware does.

    But blaming past administrations can work for only so long. In downgrading HP on Wednesday, BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman noted that "…previous management did not provide guidance, and then miss for three quarters," as HP has done.