HP TouchPad sold out after weekend fire sale

Hewlett-Packard

(CBS) - Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad set the Internet wild over the weekend after the tablet's fire sale.

Full coverage of HP on Tech Talk
HP webOS in limbo after TouchPad is killed
HP bows out of tablet wars

Retailers nationwide dropped the price of HP's TouchPad from $399 to $99 and $499 to $149 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively. For comparison sake, Apple's iPad starts at $499 for a 16GB model. News spread quickly on Saturday and by Monday morning the tablets were sold out at chains like Barnes & Noble and Best Buy.

The fire sale came only one day after the announcement that the tablet would be discontinued, leaving its operating system, webOS, out in the cold.

A week ago Arik Hesseldahl at AllThingsD reported that Best Buy was only able to sell 10% of the 270,000 TouchPads in stock. The electronics retailer was obviously unhappy with the lackluster numbers. According to Hesseldahl's source, Best Buy "told HP it [was] unwilling to pay for all the TouchPads taking up expensive space in its stores and warehouses, and want[ed] HP to take them back."

We're guessing this is how HP responded to the complaints. It was probably one of the smartest moves the company has made regarding the tablet. Hey, it's got us all talking, right?

The success of the sale leaves us feeling there was never an issue of product, but price point. Non-Apple consumers just aren't ready to spend that kind of money on, well, non-Apple products.

Consumers who want to live dangerously can still buy the TouchPad on eBay, however, keep in mind that webOS is no longer supported. Meaning, there will be no new apps and no updates for the tablet.

Perhaps the show of interest will convince HP to keep developing lower-priced products for webOS.

[rwsmith29456]

Alas, HP makes (made) good stuff but it wouldn't sell because quality was a little pricey. They had tons of these sitting in a warehouse that wouldn't sell until last weekend.

[RealiteBites]

So strange, that they developed and made the thing, did that huge rollout with the boxer and the girl from Glee and Katy Perry's husband. And then decided to discontinue it and mark it down to a fraction of it's original price?

[rf35]

I have no use for a tablet whether it's at $499 or $99. Anyway, I think $99 is too much for something that might not be compatible with any apps not already available for it.

[rastedt]

It is incorrect to say webOS is no longer supported. HP notified the webOS developer mailing list Friday of their intent to continue developing the OS and creating new apps. The hope is to license use of the OS to hardware makers.

[rob56316]

Yes but remember as soon at windows 8 is out, that will be replacing WebOS as Microsoft's tablet operating system. No point in getting in on something as it is going out the door.

[nervous_cat]

I wish I had bought one for $99, but I didn't hear about the sale until this morning when it was too late. Those tablets could eventually loaded with Android (see link below for TouchDroid project).

http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?t=3327