Hewlett Packard (HP) will exit from the low-cost tablet market and will focus on high-end tablets instead.
HP has stopped listing some of its low-cost Android tablets on the company's website. Some low-end tablets such as the HP 7 G2 and the HP 8 G2, which have a price tag of $99 and $149 respectively, have not been not in stock for several months now. It is highly unlikely that HP will replenish supply for these low-cost tablets in the near term. However, customers may still find stock of these tablets from retailers.
Currently, the cheapest tablet available on HP's website is the HP Pro Tablet 408 G1, which has a price tag of $299 and runs on Windows 10 Home. Only a limited number of HP tablets run on Android and most of the tablets sold by the company have the Windows operating system.
A number of companies such as Amazon, Asus, Lenovo, Acer and more are selling low-end tablets in the market and there are a slew of low-end and low-cost tablets available with a price tag of less than $100.
HP's decision to exit the low-end tablet market comes as demand for such tablets has been declining.
"We are going to focus where there is profitability and growth and will not chase the low-end tablet market. We are focusing on business mobility to deliver tablets built for field service, education, retail and healthcare," says Ron Coughlin, president for personal systems at HP.
HP will be focusing on detachables, business tablets and hybrids at the higher end of the market. The International Data Corporation (IDC) also predicts that the market share of detachable tablets will increase in the near term.
"We're witnessing a real market transition as end users shift their demand towards detachables and more broadly towards a productivity-based value proposition," says Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director, Tablets.
IDC estimates that the detachables segment will nearly double in 2016.
Coughlin adds that existing HP products such as the Spectre x2, which has a detachable screen and a price tag of $799.99, and Spectre x360, a device in which the screen folds and turns into a tablet, are some examples of HP's future focus.
