$99 HP TouchPad Sale: 200,000 New Tablets Arriving in Weeks (VIDEO)
Hewlett Packard is running off another 200,000 of their $99 HP TouchPads due to be released for sale in late October. HP is hoping to satisfy an unfulfilled demand for the TouchPad which sold out in its first run this summer — and to try and compete with the Apple iPad.
The 16 GB HP TouchPad will go for $99, the 32 GB version will be selling for $149. This is a repeat of the TouchPad clearance sale in late August, which saw the discounted tablets sell out everywhere in North America.
An email sent to Hewlett Packard employees said that, “At the present rate, the supply of TouchPads will not last for long.”
With a repertoire of only 300 apps, the HP TouchPad was doomed to faint praise, especially when pitted against Apple’s sought after iPad 2 with some 500,000 apps and counting.
Even TouchPad’s Web OS mobile operating system was panned.
Retailers will have the final say in determining the price of iPad; some sellers may believe they can get more for the tablet than its advertised $99 price tag.
After the huge sellout during summer, customers may be wondering just where to find their budget device in the second run. The answer is at Best Buy and at the Hewlett Packard website, both sponsors of the August sale and the most likely sources later this month.
Since it was launched to the market no more than two months ago, the TouchPad tablet, originally at $499, failed to attract consumer attention despite the heavy PR and marketing efforts by Hewlett Packard.
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