The discontinued HP TouchPad continues its liquidation at fire sale prices, and the frantic search for the defunct tablet at that elusive $99.99 price is one of the trending topics on Twitter today.
Use this link to search Twitter for the latest info, or use the Twitter hashtag #HPTouchpad to get pricing and locations where the TouchPad might be available.
Another good place to keep tabs on the HP TouchPad is slickdeals.net, where a Wiki Community Board shows you where you might be able to find a bargain. It’s a quickly changing situation, so you might want to check back often to see if there are any changes.
Alas, according to slickdeals.net, many of the possibilities have already been exploited, with the following stores shown as sold out:
* Office Max [officemax.com] (Sold Out)
* HP Home & Office – 16 GB [hp.com] (Sold Out)
* HP Home & Office – 32 GB (Sold Out)
* PC Richard (Sold Out)
* Target (Sold Out)
* Sam’s Club (Sold Out)
* Office Depot (Sold Out) (apply 942099541 for free $15 giftcard for lunch. Good for subway/panera bread/burger king)
* Walmart (Sold Out for online shipping, choose your local store to see if it’s available for instore pickup)
* MicroCenter – 16 GB(Sold Out) – Orders which were confirmed by email are being followed by cancellation emails, even in cases of ordering only 1.
* MicroCenter – 32 GB(Sold Out)
* Fry’s (Sold Out)
* J&R (Sold Out)Canada:
* Best Buy Canada (Sold Out)
* FutureShop (owned by BBY) (Sold Out)
According to the slickdeals wiki, you might have a chance at HP’s site if you call them on the phone and wait. We noticed the company was offering 16GB TouchPads for $99.99 and 32GB models for $149.99. [Update: Oops! It's now listed as out of stock, and we're hearing the HP call center is down.]
You’ll find a lot more info and tips at slickdeals.net.
Another tip: Have a live chat with other bargain hunters about availabilities and pricing of the TouchPad atTinyChat.com.
Yet another tip: Best Buy won’t be selling the TouchPad in the U.S., but is offering a full refund for those who bought the TouchPad on a 60-day policy.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve had any luck finding available TouchPads at deep discounts.
Update: Early adopters who bought the HP TouchPad at near-retail prices will be happy to know that according toWebOS Roundup, HP has agreed to refund the difference between what they paid and these ultra-low fire-sale prices.
COMMENTARY: I feel sorry for HP, because exec's Richard Kerris and Phil McKinney saw themselves as "underdogs" and thought they could make a run of it against the iPad. I really loved the TouchPad, and said so much in blog posts dated June 27, 2011 and July 3, 2011. It's a story with a sad ending, but the tablet wars are not over by a long shot. It's still early. IBM thought they had the PC war won, but we all know how that ended. Now HP goes through the embarassement of taking the TouchPad off the market after only one and a half months because it was just not selling. Good decision. HP is plans on getting out of the computer hardware business altogether. Great decision, but it makes you wonder why they developed the TouchPad. It's ironic, that people are now scurring about like crazed scavengers to buy a deeply discounted TouchPad at $99.00 and they are hard to find. HP had dropped the price to $395, but even at that price it wasn't enough to save the "magical device," as I referred to it. Steve Jobs and Apple must be giving themselves high fives.
Courtesy of an article dated August 20, 2011 appearing in Mashable
Comments