$99 TouchPad Too Good to Pass Up

Published on 08-20-2011 06:12 AM

News is spreading quickly online that HP is going to clear out the vast TouchPad inventory by dropping the price to an offer you can't refuse. Rumor has it that beginning tomorrow the 16Gb TouchPad will be $99, and the 32Gb TouchPad will be a measly $149.

If you asked me three weeks ago about a TouchPad, I would have said you should absolutely not get one. For the same money you could get an iPad 2 which is a vastly superior tablet.

One of the problems that HP and other tablet rivals have is that they think its enough to beat the iPad on paper with hardware specs, then match Apple's pricing, but the reality is that the iPad 2 is a much better experience so that strategy doesn't cut it.

HP learned that lesson the hard way, and quickly pulled the plug on its tablet--and its entire WebOS mobile ecosystem for that matter. Truth be told, for HP to go so quickly from grandiose claims of changing the tablet landscape to shutting down the whole operation really just illustrates that HP never had a solid tablet or mobile strategy and that it was really just looking for an excuse to get out.

Even when HP started slashing prices and the TouchPad was supposedly selling for $300 at Staples a couple weeks ago, it was still questionable. Now that HP pulled the plug entirely on WebOS and the TouchPad, you'd have to be crazy to get one, right?

Well, no. Not really. It is actually a fairly capable tablet. It's just not an iPad 2. Starting this weekend, HP is supposed to fire sale the remaining inventory at $99. For $500 it was a joke. For $300 it was still a shady deal. For $99 it's a steal.

Two Canadian sites--Best Buy Canada and Future Shop--already have the TouchPad listed online for $99. BestBuy.com in the United States still has it listed at full price and currently claims to have zero in stock and that my neighborhood store also supposedly has no inventory.

However, that is not true. I assume they are just prepping the website for the bargain pricing to go into effect. The reality is that my Best Buy is swimming in unsold HP TouchPad inventory.

I went out tonight and picked mine up at the regular $400 price to beat the rush. Situations like this are why they invented price matching. I can just go back with my receipt once the fire sale starts and get the price adjusted and the difference refunded.

I don't expect it to replace my iPad 2, but for $99 it is a deal that is simply too good to pass up.

Categories:
Hardware

6 Comments

rbendorf - 08-20-2011, 12:24 PM
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I just checked with Amazon.com and at present they do not have the updated price. Also, no one is showing stock for either the 16GB or the 32GB. Hopefully today they will be released as I would like to have one.

Just picked up the 32GB at Staples!

peat moss - 08-20-2011, 02:53 PM
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Originally Posted by rbendorf

I just checked with Amazon.com and at present they do not have the updated price. Also, no one is showing stock for either the 16GB or the 32GB. Hopefully today they will be released as I would like to have one.

Just picked up the 32GB at Staples!

Kool not surprised tho after HP stated their getting out of the PC game .

Link : http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D9P7A6JG3.htm

Chief_Garbonzo - 08-20-2011, 05:57 PM
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Wow! $99 for 16GB and $149 for 32GB is indeed a steal! I've been checking a lot of sites, but no one has put that price up except for the Canadian sites, and they don't have inventory showing yet, and on the Canada BestBuy site it does say $99 but in other spots has the normal $399 still. So I dunno. I just woke up and I had all the tabs open on my browser from the nite before, as I refreshed them, a lot of the sites changed their layout on the HP tablets... meaning something is going on but I dunno yet. rbendorf - did you get yers at Staples for the reduced price? Or did you pay full and then will get a price match when the frenzy starts??

rbendorf - 08-20-2011, 06:32 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by Chief_Garbonzo

Wow! $99 for 16GB and $149 for 32GB is indeed a steal! I've been checking a lot of sites, but no one has put that price up except for the Canadian sites, and they don't have inventory showing yet, and on the Canada BestBuy site it does say $99 but in other spots has the normal $399 still. So I dunno. I just woke up and I had all the tabs open on my browser from the nite before, as I refreshed them, a lot of the sites changed their layout on the HP tablets... meaning something is going on but I dunno yet. rbendorf - did you get yers at Staples for the reduced price? Or did you pay full and then will get a price match when the frenzy starts??

Got it for 149.99+tax...as I said earlier it was probably the only one they had in stock. Another guy came in after me and they told him they had no more. The Office Depot down the street did not have any...even though they said they had 3 in stock when I called. Good luck finding one. I called Amazon.com and they would probably be the best bet.