Updated: HP TouchPad Reduced to $99 and $149 (16GB & 32GB)
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 20, 2011 1:37 PM ESTIf you haven't heard by now, HP is significantly reducing the price of the WiFi TouchPad in order to clear all inventories of the tablet. The 16GB WiFi TouchPad will sell for $99, while the 32GB version will be reduced to $149.
The price reduction is supposed to go into effect tomorrow, however a number of etailers jumped the gun yesterday. At this point I don't believe there is a way to order a TouchPad online at either of those prices - nearly all of the online sources that listed the reduced prices are now out of stock.
If you missed the opportunity yesterday, there's always the brick and mortar stores as soon as they open tomorrow.
As we've already reported, HP will cease all webOS device operations by Q4 2011. The TouchPad and Veer won't be made anymore and the Pre 3 has been canceled entirely. HP hasn't announced what it's going to do with webOS, although at this point we're hearing the rights to the OS aren't up for sale.
Given the lack of support going forward, why even consider a $99 TouchPad? The tablet does work reasonably well as an email/browser client, and it's likely that we'll continue to see 3rd party apps developed for it. The big hope is that the homebrew community will keep at it and perhaps someone will come along and actually do something with webOS one of these days. There's also the option that someone will eventually port Android 3.x to it. If that happens, you'd have a high end Honeycomb tablet for $99. Admittedly porting Android 3.x to the TouchPad could take a while.
At $99 I feel like the TouchPad is a good buy if you're fine with taking a risk on a platform that has no guaranteed support going forward. In other words, if you can part with the money and forget about it, it's not a bad idea.
Update: BestBuy in the US isn't discounting the TouchPad in stores. For everyone who bought one at the higher price, BestBuy isn't matching prices but it has extended the return window to 60-days.
Update 2: BestBuy has reversed its decision and will be discounting the TouchPad in stores.
Source: Slickdeals.net
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
View All Comments
name99 - Sunday, August 21, 2011 - link
Thanks dude. I guess I wasn't "technically inclined" when I wrote or optimized, among other things, Apple's MPEG software, AAC software, and H264 software. Tell us what equivalent "technically inclined" things you have done.HP ships a product called HP Play that is supposed to perform the job of syncing media with the device. They (HP) appear to see a need for such an app. The POINT of such an app is NOT that people don't understand how to move files through a USB connection, it is that such an app can
(a) validate files as working on the device (and warning you if they will not) and
(b) in the optimal case transcoding them so that they WILL work on the device.
Of course it is nice that they also handle such issues as keeping playcounts in sync, maintaining playlists, remembering your position --- the niceties that are the reason people buy one particular brand of device rather than another.
But heck, if you think that spending $99 on a crappy UI for organizing media on the device, along with muddy audio, is a great deal, be my guest.
Or you could buy a 2nd hand iPad1 16GB on eBay. Those are going for around $250 to $300, which perhaps tells you something about relative desirability.
Silenux - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
There is always a workaround for the market.The big problem is porting Android first.
ilkhan - Sunday, August 21, 2011 - link
Its a snapdragon internally, just like the nexus one and a bunch of other android phones. Once they crack a way to flash anything it should be pretty well supported.Roland00Address - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
lets hope it ship, it has moved from the verifying stage to the processing stage. My credit card has been billed but I have not recieved a confirmation e-mail.Total before taxes is $155.98 for 32gb+Case (used a $30 dollar off coupon code)
*fingers crossed*
teng029 - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
@99 bucks, how bad can this be?superxero044 - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
Was all they had in stock but it seems pretty neat. I hope they don't scrap it completely. I think this OS would be great for a phone too. If they license the OS that would be best case scenario. Anyone have App recomendations?Can't wait to see the hacks people who picked these up for 99$ come up with.
gevorg - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
HP should open WebOS to make it truly open source and no strings attached mobile OS.Hell will freeze over if Apple ever does something like this, and Google is still holding Android users by the balls with theirs not-so open source Android and completely closed source Honeycomb.
name99 - Sunday, August 21, 2011 - link
"Hell will freeze over if Apple ever does something like this,"You mean WebKit? Darwin? Clang? Cups?
I don't understand what the mindset is here?You seem angry at the world that Apple will not give away EVERYTHING they have of value to you for free. Do you harbor that same anger to your neighbor?
DanNeely - Monday, August 22, 2011 - link
Webkit was based on the existing KHTML rendering engine originally written for Konqueror under LGPL. No choice about releasing the code for that. Clang grew out of the open source LLVM research project. Cups was developed independently under GPL/LGPL licenses before Apple bought it.Solidstate89 - Saturday, August 20, 2011 - link
Used the guide on Slickdeals to set up an EPP account (NOT the one that uses the 2727 Army Code) and applied the 30 dollar off coupon code.Bought the 32GB version and the Touchstone charging dock. It was stuck at "verifying order" for a good 10-11 hours before it finally confirmed the order was being prepared.