• HP's Latest Fiasco: The Vanishing $99 TouchPad





    It wasn't quite the scene you'll find for the iPhone 5 debut, but about 30 or more bargain hunters showed up at San Francisco's Best Buy hoping to snatch up a cheap HP TouchPad on Saturday. Internet reports indicated that the TouchPad devices had sold cheaply in Canada, and other big box stores like Fry's had sold out. The going price: $99 for the 16 GB version, $149 for the 32 GB TouchPad.

    Most of the crowd had seen the notice on Best Buy's door indicating that there had been an error, and the TouchPad wouldn't be sold at all. Yet they waited to hear it from store workers. Sure enough, at 10 a.m. the outer doors opened, the crowd moved toward the door, and an employee clad in the usual Best Buy Polo shirt informed everyone that if they were there for the TouchPad, they were out of luck.

    A disappointed group turned in mass and headed back to their cars.

    It wasn't just the size of the group that differed from an Apple product launch. Most notably, there wasn't a Millennial to be found. The average age of the crowd seemed closer to 40. A swarm of German and Japanese luxury cars slowly left the Best Buy parking lot.

    Discussions in the cars probably centered around whether they could find the device selling cheaply elsewhere, and about how HP had made yet another implosive mistake in its handling of the WebOS device shutdown.
    Comments 5 Comments
    1. crepito's Avatar
      crepito -
      Lol, i would love to see their faces :p
    1. hersi's Avatar
      hersi -
      Just picked up two for $149 each — the 32 GB one. Should be here in two days.

      Someone is already porting Gingerbread (with a Cyanogen mod base) over to the TouchPad, so it's just a matter of time. Even with just the WebOS on it, it's pretty damn slick. If Windows 8 gets ported (since the ARM version has been leaked), it's going to be an early Christmas, lol.


      I sure as hell didn't think about purchasing it at $599 let alone $499 when it came out. For $149 on the 32 GB, it's a damn steal — that's 78% off. Add to that it was the #3 tablet behind the iPad2 and Samsung Galaxy, it's pretty damn nice.
    1. stlcardinal9's Avatar
      stlcardinal9 -
      Just got my 32gb!
    1. hersi's Avatar
      hersi -
      Quote Originally Posted by stlcardinal9 View Post
      Just got my 32gb!
      Awesome, dude!

      I got an email from the place I ordered, and it's killing me.

      We would like to thank you for your recent order of an HP Touchpad.

      Due to an overwhelming response to this item, we will require additional time to process and ship these orders. If you chose expedited shipping, your order will ship via that method however it will still take additional time to process your order. Rest assured we are working as quickly as possible to process your order.

      We received tens of thousands of orders for the HP Touchpads. We have restructured our support team to help with the processing of these orders. In order to allow our support staff to work on processing these order, we ask that you please refrain from contacting us for the status of your order. Once your order has been processed and shipped, you will automatically receive an email with tracking information. If we should encounter an issue with your order, you will be contacted directly.

      If you have concerns if you order has been received; you may log into your xxxxxx account and your order should appear in your order history.

      We do apologize for the delay and rest assured your order will be filled as soon as possible and that your credit card will not be charged until your order is ready to ship.

      We appreciate your business and your patience while we work to process and fill every customers order.
      When I ordered mine, there were over 10,300+ units in stock. 15 minutes later, they were all gone. The place is reputable, so I'm not worried. It's not like they have charged the card or anything yet anyways. I'm just more concerned about them fulfilling my order.
    1. hersi's Avatar
      hersi -
      Small bumpage. Some units are reported to have been using Android 2.2 on it already! A guy bought it from Best Buy. He didn't mod it or anything. The 1:1 image dump is on the rootwiki site. WOOT!