My TouchPad arrived today and I’ve been playing with it this evening. It’s a fun little device and I can really appreciate the complaints I’ve heard. (WebOS is great and HP’s hardware is crap.)
Eventually I got to the point that I decided I was going to keep the TouchPad, so I finished setting up an account in the App Catalog. I was going to get the free apps I told you about this morning. I was only interested in Glimpse (it lets you open 2 windows at once), but I was going to get the rest of the apps just because they were free.
Unfortunately, I can’t. All the promo codes for the free apps have expired. Apparently there’s an upper limit on the number of times that they can be redeemed.
This promo code has reached its limit and is no longer valid.
It’s been just over a day since HP announced the offer on the Palm blog and they’ve already run out of free apps.
I’m pissed. Why did HP put a limit? I mean, the promotion is already limited; there are only so many TouchPads out there. Heck, why would HP even _have_ a limit on free apps? It would seem to defeat the purpose of the promotion.
No matter what an unlimited promotion cost, it would have been peanuts to HP. Between buying Palm, developing and then killing the TouchPad, they’re already in the hole for a couple billion dollars. What’s another few million if it makes users happy and changes public opinion? It’s peanuts.
HP had a chance here to build some good publicity for webOS. This could have been the first step in changing the perception that webOS is a failed platform. Instead HP screwed this up just like they screwed up the TP hardware, the clearance sale, and pretty much everything else involved with Palm.
What do you call a company that can’t even run a free app promo properly? Why, you call them HP, of course.
Update: I’ve been told on Twitter that the promotion ended after only 12 hours, so it was an even bigger screw up than I imagined. And I’m not the only one who is pissed.
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I think that the promotion was to get ppl into the App store to see that there are apps to suit their needs. Glad your TP arrived and that Onsale did the right thing by you. In that alone, you are way ahead of me and many many others that still haven’t been able to purchase and actually receive the device.
It got me into the app catalog all right. And then I left pissed.
I have 3 windows open on my copy of Glimpse (which I bought when first became available).
I invite you to join me over at PreCentral.net, so you can get your Touchpad rocking with Preware.
On my way over.
Although the promo codes have expired, HP still has the offer up. You have to enter each one separately to find out it isn’t available. I called HP support and asked why the still have the offer up on their blog if the apps aren’t to be gotten: they said the offer goes through Aug. 31, and their rule is it has to say up, even though you can’t get the apps. I guess they want to annoy as many people as possible.
“I guess they want to annoy as many people as possible.”
Yep.
So Nate, other than the Kindle App, what are some of the other ebook reading apps? Is Nook, Aldiko, ereader (Palm), etc around? Also, how is pdf support? Namely Adobe DRM. Please do a review. I am not interested in games and video. If I get mine from HP, I don’t see me hacking it as long as I can use it as an ereader, email, web browsing device. I love my iPad2, but I get nervous taking it out of the house.
For PDF there’s the Adobe Reader app. And for Epub there is pReader. That’s all I have so far.
HP now Offering Another 6-pack of Free TouchPad Apps - The Digital Reader // Aug 29, 2011 at 12:15 pm
[...] August 29th, 2011 by Nate Hoffelder · No Comments · Uncategorized // Last Thursday HP announced a special deal for TouchPad owners. For a limited time, a limited number of TP owners could download any of 6 free apps for the TouchPad. HP underestimated the demand, and that offer ran out in less than 12 hours, much to my dismay. [...]