Does the HP Touchpad prove the Sony/Nintendo model?

A highly desirable piece of electronic kit, that if it was sold to make a profit would not be bought by the customers. Drop the price a bit, though, and people start buying. It’s okay, because you’ll be able to make up the price difference in consumables and software sales.

The HP Touchpad? Nope, the entire foundation of the console gaming market system. Part of me wonders if HP missed a trick in the initial pricing of the Touchpad by not following the Nintendo/Sony/Xbox model. That same parts wonders if company like Samsung could leverag their own marketplace store to drop the price of ‘secondary’ devices like the Galaxy Tab into the new magic hotspot  somewhere between $99 and $399.

Of course the other part of my brain wonders how Nintendo and Sony, especially in their mobile devices, can cope when the glut of mobile games have educated users that $1 is a good price for a mobile game. And if you want to go circular, that same depressive impact that Apple has had on the software market is exactly what HP have done to every other tablet maker.