1. Their rollout sucked. 

2. They only talked to the press, not users. 

3. They announced it long before it shipped, and the shipment was a non-event. 

4. They failed to say what was exciting about the product. 

5. Once there was something exciting about it, very low price, it flew off the shelves. 

6. People want interesting products in this area now. 

7. People who think Apple has it sewn up are wrong. 

8. Developers do not always flock to the largest installed base. At least not all developers. 

9. There are still options for WebOS, esp if they do something to give full freedom to independent developers. 

There was a time when it was said the Mac is dead, and no one is developing for it. I happened to have been developing for it at the time, so when they said that it only got me more motivated.  

I would like to put my software on a tablet, but I don't see that happening for either Android or IOS. So there you go, there are developers who are looking for opportunities here and don't care about the size of your installed bas. 

I am not saying I will invest in WebOS, not even close. They managed to completely screw it up and they needed to do the exact opposite. But to conclude that the iPad cannot be competed with is, afraid to say, very incorrect. There's a difference between saying HP is incapable of competing with Apple and Apple cannot be competed with.