HP TouchPad Tablet: From Promising Future to $99 Firesale

HP introduced the TouchPad with much fanfare back in February and began selling the tablets in June. It’s crown jewel was the webOS system, which they obtained after acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion. It was rumored that HP had big plans for webOS, as they saw it eventually migrating to PC’s and possibly into there cloud plans, as they attempted to compete with the likes of Google and Apple.

Flash forward just seven weeks after the TouchPad hit store shelves, and HP has discontinued all webOS devices. This comes on the heels of an announcement where HP is looking to spinoff it’s hardware division and look to reposition themselves as a corporate technology provider.

At the moment you can get a 16GB HP Touchpad at firesale pricing: $99 and a 32GB HP Touchpad for $149 — that is if you can find one.

Currently HP TouchPads are sold out at pretty much everywhere online including: HP, HP Home & Office, Amazon, MicroCenter, Office Max, Office Depot, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart, HH Gregg, Best Buy… I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.

Some businesses that didn’t even drop the price are out of stock as well, as some people purchased the tablet at full price hoping to get it price matched later. That’s a pretty hefty risk, as nothing is guaranteed.

There is no denying that people want the TouchPad, as long as it’s for the firesale price. SlickDeals.net currently has ONE thread devoted to the TouchPad which has seen well over 4.2 million views since Friday evening.

The social media manager for HP took to Twitter where she attempted to help people understand that HP was temporarily out of stock. It appears that she was attempting to steer people away from the already crippled various HP .com’s that thrifty shoppers had brought down.