During its roller coaster of an earnings call on Thursday evening, Hewlett-Packard confirmed that it will take a huge charge as a result of the TouchPad’s poor sell-through rate at retailers. The company said on its earnings call that the TouchPad would result in a charge of $0.05 per share. With just over 2.07 billion public shares outstanding according to HP’s investor relations website, the total charge will come to more than $103 million. Even more costly, we’re afraid, could be the damage done to HP’s brand image in the eyes of customers who have purchased HP products in recent months. Of course this damage could be limited by the fact that HP might not be in the PC business much longer either, though it is unclear if a spun off PC division would continue to carry some kind of HP branding, or if it would instead opt for something fresh and new (like Compaq, perhaps).

Zach Epstein has worked in and around ICT for more than 15 years, first in marketing and business development with two private telcos, then as a writer and editor covering business news, consumer electronics and telecommunications. Zach’s work has been quoted by countless top news publications in the US and around the world. He was also recently named one of the world's top-10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes, as well as one of Inc. Magazine's top-30 Internet of Things experts.