Still Looking For A HP TouchPad?

by

Still looking to pick up a HP TouchPad? While it may very well be the tablet deal of the year, especially if a reasonable Android port is made available, I’m still saving my pennies for Amazon’s imminent entrant. But, being geeky, that remains subject to change… and I had signed up for HP’s email inventory alerts. Today, some mostly non-news arrived:

Thank you for your interest in the HP TouchPad and webOS. The overwhelming demand for this product in recent days has made it difficult to fulfill your request at the present time, and we are working to make more available as soon as possible. While we do not yet have specific details, we know it will be at least a few weeks before we have a limited quantity available again. We will keep you informed as we have more specifics that we can communicate, and we encourage you to join the conversation here for the latest information.

In light of this and other recent HP news, we want you to know that we remain committed to you. We will continue to honor our warranties now and in the future. We will continue delivering products that make a difference in your life and we will continue to provide the best possible service to you every day.

So we’ll keep our eyes on HP.com and their updated TouchPad FAQ. Having said that, you may also want check in with your local Best Buy. As of last week, they were still receiving shipments – a coworker spent about 6 hours in line Saturday AM and managed to walk away with one of 40 units.

Click to enlarge:

13 thoughts on “Still Looking For A HP TouchPad?”

  1. Looks like the 16GB model is selling for $250 on ebay. I got my 16GB touchpad for $90 shipped (from HP.com with a $15 coupon) and don’t know that I would pay more than $150, since webOS is dead. I would have eagerly paid $200 the week before HP’s announcement, however.

    I’m really looking forward to seeing amazon’s pricing strategy. It’s pretty clear that tablets will sell like hotcakes at $250 or less.

  2. Amazon resellers are selling it for $250 or so too. I’d be more comfortable going there than eBay, although again I personally wouldn’t go over $150.

  3. Yeah, $150 is probably my top price. But for about that, I can pick up a used or refurb Nook Touch which has a form factor I prefer and a mature Android port (with dual boot). Hm. I need to just remain patient and see what Amazon brings to the table.

  4. To justify aggressive pricing, the amazon tablet will pretty clearly be a iOS-like walled-garden locked-down android fork, which I find much less compelling than “real” android.

    Thing is, since it’ll be running a version of android, once it’s rooted the cyanogenmod guys will hopefully have an easy time getting their builds up and running. And THAT is what I want.

  5. Got the same email even though I never got the confirmation of signing up for notifications (their server kept timing out).

    The mail service at my job should be dropping off 32GB TouchPad and Touchstone today (already got keyboard and folio). It’s a little insanse that HP decided to clear out inventory at such prices — they’d sold out at $200/250 levels.

    Amazon’s tablets are the ones to watch as long as they keep pricing as low as everyone expects them. For a 7-inch model, they can’t price it at more than $200-250 (Nook Color’s MSRP). Amazon would also be wise to leave their tablet(s) relatively hackable.

  6. This whole thing is relatively odd. Wouldn’t be surprised if Leo gets fired for what a bad job he did of this communication, given the thrashing its done to HP’s stock. The WebOS is dead, not dead, we’re killing the WebOS hardware, maybe we’re not, hey its dead but here’s some free software since we’re already losing money, blah blah blah has been so horribly mishandled I can’t recall something as horribly bungled in corporate communications.

    That said, I still don’t see the point in buying one of these things. Buy an iPad. Buy a Nook Color. Buy an Asus Transformer. Wait for Amazon to enter the market. I understand how a $99 purchase can seem justifiable but a year from now they’ll be some web stuff that won’t render properly since HTML 5 is still evolving, the latest Kindle app won’t work any more, etc. Not sure its worth it, certainly not at any price above $99.

    I too am waiting with baited breath to see what Amazon does. I assume they will at the very least get the pricing right. Suspect it’ll be a bit of a Microsoft approach, in that initially it won’t be that great, but they’ll refine the software over time to enhance it. If they get the basics right–price, app store, ways to buy media, a decent browser, I think they could have a real hit on their hands.

  7. while I agree the browser might not work with every web app in 1 or 2 years, paying 124 for the 32 gig seems like a great deal, one I’m glad I got in for. its working great for writing this post ;-) and if I have to buy a new tablet in 1 to 2 years so what, I’m sure the ipad 4 and 4th galaxy tab will be far beyond what we have now that it will be worth it no matter what tablet you have today.

  8. “we are working to make more available as soon as possible.”

    Wait – I thought this thing was dead. As in cease manufacturing and the price was reduced ridiculously low just to get rid of whatever is left.

    Could this whole thing be a huge ploy to just get these things out there. As in this whole “We are getting out of the Web OS” thing a completely staged and much better than “viral marketing” than ever before?

    I mean look at the huge demand. These things are sold out everywhere. People flocked to these in droves once the price was drastically reduced. Now with all those units out there who’s to say that HP rethinks that decision, or perhaps everything is going according to plan ::mwa hahaha::

  9. I assume the production runs had already been locked in and paid for. But instead of sending the tablets to the landfill as Palm did with their Foleo flame out (notice the trend), HP will recoup a few bucks and expand the webOS community – attempting to make it more desirable to a potential suitor. At $99 a pop, they’re surely losing money and this isn’t part of some ingenious plan. In fact, their CEO and board should be replaced as chronicled by the WSJ:
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576535211589514334.html

  10. I think they’re setting WebOS and the patents up for a sale, possibly to Samsung. What’s funny is the TouchPad is reportedly the #2 tablet behind the iPad because of the blowout. Any Android tablet company would have loved to sell this many tablets without returns (Best Buy sold the tablets as “final sale.”). HP is making a dangerous transition away from low-end hardware, but they have to as Apple is moving the pricing lower and lower ($999 Macbook Air).

    I love how HP is changing to a cloud/enterprise software company, but can’t keep the TouchPad website or blog online…

  11. “I think they’re setting WebOS and the patents up for a sale, possibly to Samsung.”

    That’s indeed the rumor. But until a deal is announced, or a better sourced rumor appears, there is no there there yet.

  12. I bought a pandigital planet from Kohl’s for 150$ after all the % off stuff. I just need the time and will get google apps and market running on that. (read Netflix) Even, with the android branch form pandigital it works great and has a ntive B&N e-reader app out of the box.

    in 2 years we likely will be able to buy tablets with netbook power at 150$ and I will hand this off to one of my kids

Comments are closed.