Over the past couple of weeks, HP’s seen a lot of ups and downs. Last week, in an announcement which rocked the tech world, the company confirmed its decision to discontinue their recently launched WebOS line of products, particularly the HP Veer smartphones and the TouchPad tablet series, after their dismal sales from the time they hit the market. This announcement had everyone wondering about the future of WebOS, especially the consumers who had just bought the new series.

Shortly after this astonishing revelation, in an even more surprising turn of events, the two month old products took the world by storm in a fire sale, the likes of which had never been seen before and which left stores and competitors reeling in shock. It also had HP rethinking its stance on shutting shop with respect to WebOS hardware.

In a recent interview with AllThingsD, DeWitt, disclosed with utter optimism that, “the company is continuing to invest in the software even as it stops making WebOS tablets and phones.”

While the company is keeping its options open and talks are continuing about the sale of the WebOS and HP’s proposed spin-off of its PC business, plans to release WebOS-equipped printers and PCs are in the making, even though no details have been divulged so far.

HP is also continuing with its launch of the Pre 3, though the US market will not see the official release. The company will be releasing the Pre 3 in limited quantities to certain “limited markets”. They have already launched the products in the UK and certain parts of Europe.

Information Source: PalmInfoCenter.com and AllThingsD

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The HP Touchpad tablet, which Hewitt Packard discontinued just last week during the end of quarter financial reports press release, saw a massive drop in sale prices – from the original price of $399 to a mere $99 for the 16GB model causing a frenzy amongst online shoppers.

In view of the spiraling prices of tablet PCs in the market at this current moment, it was a steal, and consumers devoured the HP tablets, leaving online stores dusting their sold-out boards and empty shelves in delight. All except Barnes & Noble, who have been receiving a lot of flak from consumers.

Evidently, Barnes & Noble, one of the few sites selling the HP tablet at the $99 discount sale, reneged on a large number of orders after consumers had placed their orders. They claimed to have over-sold the tablet in the e-mails sent to customers.

A CNET reader received the following letter from the company:

“Due to unexpected customer demand for this item, our inventory was depleted prior to your order being processed so we are unable to fulfill this item as requested. Consequently, we have canceled your order and you will not be billed for this amount. “

The news has set the Twitter Cloud ablaze with people tweeting about it constantly. While, it is not clear how many orders had been deprived of a spanking new Touchpad, going by the number of complaints posted by unhappy buyers on micro-social networking sites like Twitter, it is a fairly large figure.

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HP Touchpad

In a surprising turn of events, just two years after an investment of a whopping $1.8 billion dollars on Palm’s webOS software that was to help the company regain its stature in the PC hardware business, Hewlett-Packard has decided to pull the plug on their webOS hardware, even as the new tablet series began to earn the grudging respect of critics.

On Thursday, much to the consternation of thousands of consumers who’ve purchased the tablet since its launch less than two months ago, HP announced that it was discontinuing its line of HP TouchPad tablet PCs and Smartphone products. HP has written this off in its inventory as a $100 million loss in its quarterly earnings report.

What was not surprising was the fact that since its much-hyped US launch in the beginning of July this year, the new tablet barely made a dent in the iPad market in spite of all the aggressive marketing. While the HP TouchPad is a nifty little device with delightful tweaks and an intuitive UI, the webOS is an underdog in today’s mobile tech space. Also, the TouchPad’s hardware lacks the sleek polished exterior of the iPad. Of the 270,000 units that were shipped to Best Buy, only 25,000 units were sold, the figure not including the ones that were returned. Clearly, the product, priced almost as much as the iPad, did not impress the people that mattered – the consumers.

After this huge setback, and its recent acquisition of Autonomy Corp., it is likely that HP will step out of the PC hardware business, including their range of desktop and notebook product lines, altogether, leaving the playing field wide open for Apple.

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