And no, I'm not forgetting Windows--that was deliberate.

It's always disappointing to see competitors display a breathtaking lack of fortitude, and that's what HP just did. could have been a winner for them, but they bailed way too early and essentially without a fight.

Very few product wars are won within a few months of release.

Opportunity Awaits

HP's loss, however, has the great potential to be someone else's gain. Sad as HP's decision may be, it's premature to . Criticisms of the WebOS-powered TouchPad, after all, focused primarily on its hardware and relative paucity of apps--not the operating system itself.