HP announced a couple of days ago that they were going to discontinue their “TouchPad” tablet. They decided to clear inventory by reducing the price to $100 for the 16GB, or $150 for the 32GB version. The web and retail stores immediately were hit by a buying frenzy that is still going on.
Most of the stores are sold out, but you can still find them online. I bought three — one for me and one for each of my kids. I bought the first two directly from HP last night — their server was so overloaded that it took me about 2 hours before I could finally get to the confirmation page. I got the third this afternoon from Amazon. They are now sold out, but Barnes and Noble still has a few.
They are not quite as cool as the Apple iPad, which is why they weren’t selling well at $400 and $500. But at $100 and $150, they are a great deal.
They won’t get here for several days. I’ll post my review here after it arrives.
15 responses so far ↓
1 Donna // Aug 22, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Folks at work were talking about these today and I thought to myself, “I wonder when Daryl will be buying a tablet?” Great minds think alike?
Will you do straight wifi, or get a data plan?
2 Daryl // Aug 22, 2011 at 5:31 pm
They are wifi only.
3 Richard // Aug 24, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I’ve tried finding one of them without success. I’ll be interested to hear how yours works. If you find any more, let me know, or buy it for me and I’ll pay you for it.
By the way, I installed a 2TB NAS today. It will let me do local backups without having to power up the desktop computer. It’ll work better in low power situations.
4 Daryl // Aug 24, 2011 at 10:52 pm
HP on their website says “Coming Soon” for more touchpads at the same $100 price, here.
Until tonight they had link where you could leave your email address to be notified, or put on a waiting list, not sure which, but I don’t see that link anymore.
Derek said he heard that Best Buy would be getting more and selling them tomorrow, but I wasn’t able to find confirmation on that. Their website just says “Not available”, but the product still shows up so they may be getting ready to sell more.
5 Derek // Aug 25, 2011 at 3:21 pm
What I was talking about was
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Best-Buy-Geek-Squad-Policies/HP-TouchPad-FAQs/td-p/315434
There the most recent couple updates mention shipping more to stores and selling them
6 Don // Aug 26, 2011 at 7:02 am
That’s a great price. I’ve been thinking seriously about getting an iPad but I also don’t want to spend $500. I’ve been checking craigslist and ebay but so far nothing in the range I’m willing to pay.
I know Heather loves her tablet.
7 Don // Aug 28, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 today. It runs on Android. I think the HP runs on WebOS right? I think the HP is the only one that runs on that isn’t it?
8 Daryl // Aug 28, 2011 at 9:23 pm
The HP Touchpad runs WebOS, right. But there is a group working on porting Android to it. From the reviews I have read, WebOS might be just as good or better, but there are lots more apps available for Android, so I would be tempted to switch.
CNET really liked the Samsung Galaxy Tab. As thin as, and lighter than, the iPad2. Sounds like a very nice tablet.
9 Daryl // Aug 28, 2011 at 9:29 pm
By the way, my tablets have still not arrived. The one I ordered from Amazon is on the way, and should be here Monday or Tuesday. The two from HP haven’t even shipped yet. They said they had 80,000 orders placed on the weekend, and they are a little behind.
10 Daryl // Aug 30, 2011 at 10:51 am
Update: The tablet I ordered from Amazon is out for delivery today. The two I ordered from HP are still in limbo. No word on when they will ship.
11 Donna // Aug 30, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Did you see this? Looks like some more may be coming, and mashable.com says HP is reconsidering cancelling the tablet in light of the rush on them.
http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Bench-Blog/More-TouchPads-on-the-Way/ba-p/68749
I am interested in seeing the tablet Amazon is going to sell starting in October.
http://mashable.com/2011/08/29/amazon-tablet-ipad-forrester/
12 Daryl // Aug 30, 2011 at 4:17 pm
That’s good news about HP making more. It increases my confidence that the ones I ordered will actually come, though they were supposed to be units they actually had on hand.
The Amazon tablet could be nice, though at $300 it is hardly the steal that this one is (was).
13 Daryl // Aug 30, 2011 at 4:31 pm
By the way, the one I ordered through Amazon arrived today. Since I promised one to Derek for his birthday present (which happened in the middle of the frenzy), he gets this one. Devon and I will have to wait to see if HP fulfills the other orders.
14 Donna // Sep 2, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Well, it looks like the Amazon tablet is just going to be an upgraded Kindle that will do tablet stuff, like the Nook. I don’t think a 7 inch screen is quite big enough.
http://mashable.com/2011/09/02/amazon-tablet-250/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
15 Donna // Oct 11, 2011 at 5:18 pm
Did you other tablets ever arrive? How do you like them?