First there was a $50 discount. Then there were spot discounts of $100 at outlets like Costco. Then the $100 discount became permanent. Adding insult to apparent injury, a deal on Woot for $120 off an entry-level 16 gigabyte TouchPad netted all of 612 takers.

I think most would agree that HP is not pushing the TouchPad with any gusto. These advertisements with Russel Brand provided us (the customers) with enough excitement to finish watching the commercial. They did not, however, give *anyone* the energy to actually purchase the device. Call it what you want – sad, true, harsh – I’d go with all three. The TouchPad has no momentum, no push with consumers; I would not be surprised to know that HP’s key customers (the non-geeks) did not know the tablet existed. Did I mention this little number?

Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.

True story.