This week has brought with it at least two pieces of news that has sent shockwaves through the technology industry. The first of these was Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility earlier this week; the second, no less surprising, is HP’s announcement yesterday that it will end its line of webOS based phones and TouchPad. The company alluded that webOS is not completely dead and buried, stating, somewhat cryptically,  that it would “continue to explore options to optimise the value of webOS software going forward.”

While South African users did not get the chance to get their hands on the company’s tablet, Mashable.com reports that the decision comes after Best Buy, a major retail store in the United States, reported earlier this week that it had sold a scant 10% of its TouchPad on stock, with more than 225 000 units still left in warehouses. This followed price cuts of $100 on the TouchPad, which was launched six months ago, but unfortunately this appeared not to have been enough to convince users to buy into the webOS platform.   

According to CNET, a recent survey that was done by Robert W. Baird found that 94% of 1100 surveyed tablet buyers considered the iPad to be their device of choice. Somewhat ironically, and perhaps even tragically, the TouchPad came in second place in that survey with 10%. It begs the question: did HP act too quickly?