HP TouchPad

In the wee hours of the morning yesterday HP marked down the price of its now-discontinued HP TouchPad tablet and started selling off inventory for prices as low as $99. The tablet quickly sold out online and in stores.

Best Buy

But there’s one store where you simply couldn’t buy the tablet at all on August 20th, 2011: Best Buy locations in the US. The electronics superstore chain decided to ship remaining inventory back to HP instead of selling it off at reduced prices.

Today Best Buy is singing a different tune. When stores open this morning Best Buy will sell the HP TouchPad at clearance prices on a first come, first served basis. That means if you line up outside of Best Buy stores in the US this morning before opening time you might be able to get a 16GB HP TouchPad WiFi Tablet for $99 or a 32GB model for $149.

That’s assuming there are any TouchPads left in stock when you arrive. Employees of Best Buy and other retail chains are reporting that they’re getting first crack at the tablets.

Most Best Buy locations open at 10:00AM on Sundays.

You can also place orders at BestBuy.com and arrange for in-store pickup or delivery.  Scratch that: it looks like Best Buy is sold out online, but you may still be able to find some in stores if you’re lucky.

Staples

Yesterday Staples was planning on returning unsold inventory to HP. Today the TouchPad is going for $99 to $149 at Staples.com — but it’s sold out online. It looks like there are limited quantities available in stores though, so you may be able to pick one up at a Staples location today if you act fast.

HP.com

Meanwhile HP is currently out of stock, but the store expects to get some units again. You can sign up to receive an email notification when HP has more TouchPads to sell. Now that Best Buy is selling the TouchPad again instead of sending what may be as many as 250,000 units back to HP though, it’s not clear just how many more units HP will be selling through its website in the days or weeks to come.

While the HP TouchPad didn’t sell very well when it was going for $399 and up, at $99 it’s a steal. The tablet has a 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel capacitive touchscreen display and a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It can play movies, surf the web, read eBooks, and do many of the things you would do with an iPad or Android tablet. There are also a number of third party apps — but that number is much smaller than the hundreds of thousands of apps available for iOS or Android.

If you never install a single app on the TouchPad, it’s still a bargain at $99 when you consider the fact that an Amazon Kindle or similar eBook Reader sells for around $130. But if you want to future-proof the TouchPad in case HP never succeeds in its plans to keep the webOS operating system alive by finding new partners to license the software, it looks like the independent hacker community has you covered. Efforts are already underway to get Google Android and Ubuntu Linux running on the TouchPad hardware.

On the other hand if you already purchased an HP TouchPad and have lost interest in it now that the device has been discontinued less than two months after launch, (or just want some money back since you paid $499 for a tablet that now costs just $99) HP has you covered… the company is offering full or partial refunds.

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14 replies on “More chances to pick up a $99 HP TouchPad (8-21-11)”

  1. Oh, you americans, so lucky. This kind of thing would never ever happen in Brazil…

  2. Still wouldn’t buy one for 99 bucks and no thanks for unstable OS hacks.

    1. I’m with Ihunter147 here. That was rather insulting. There are many very good and very stable “OS hacks” or custom ROMs as they are politley and commonly called.
      The devs for those OS hacks put a great deal of time and effort into providing good usable solutions to hampered stock software. Hell, I’ve been running one on a tablet and another on a phone for over a year now with very few issues and better uptime than my windows 7 pc.  

  3. These stats are not good. Went to Offcie Depot. 3 available for Sale before the store even open, Went to Los feliz BB 11 left and the line is 30, left, Called my Sister in santa maria, Only 20 were sold. Where is the held up?

  4. I can’t find it anywhere unfortunately.  I wonder how many people are buying several touchpads just to sell them on ebay.  I really don’t like that practice.  I’m not sure how it was before, but I can see ebay listing for lots of touchpads for around $200-$300.  Less than the original, but a big markup from $99 and $150.

  5. I snagged a 32gb version the other day for $149 from Office Depot online. I wanted the 16gb version, but they were selling it for $129 and I figured I would find one for $99 elsewhere. It doesn’t look like that will be happening at this point.

  6. Based on the 1024×768 resolution, and NO PIXEL QI… I passed on the HP Touchpad at even $99.00.   I am constantly frustrated with these devices when I can use them in sunlight.  
    AND – this compare video was a help too:Tablet Showdown: iPad 2 vs Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs HP TouchPadhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnmP_D1HmgA
    So, I am going to pass and wait for LTE Light 2 to show up, that does what I want it to do, is pocketable,  AND can be used outdoors or ANYWHERE, at ANYTIME.  So, even though I really thought hard about the $99 unit (I remembered the HP Mini with 16 GB flash, and that storage was just too small) and will save all my money for this instead…, I hope that none of my friends get the HP Touchpad and some fantastic IceCreme Sandwich version shows up and makes it so that I feel really bad about this decision.For now, this Aug 1 2011 video has me inspired that ZTE will be soon here.ZTE Light 2 (with Pixel Qi Screen)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcM9ILaPnDUJkkmobile covered the device at MobileWorld Congress:Feb 2011 video – ZTE Light 2 Android Tablet soon with Pixel Qi screenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv22qYg3wbEPrototype – ZTE Light Tablet with Pixel Qi Screen (June 3 2011 video upload)Compares Glare screens with non-glare Pixel Qi in DIRECT SUNLIGHT.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiwRGsokzJoPixel Qi Powered by the SUN (for about $3 more with this design)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbL3-1vB73c&feature=relmfuPixel Qi vs iPad Screen (outdoors in sunlight compared)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NotK4TVQ-6E&feature=relmfuFULL VIEW of complete Pixel Qi Booth at Computex 2011 (full lineup of things to come)They start video outdoors then move just inside to their booth.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfigFKBbs08&NR=1 – Brad – where is pre-reviews of this ZTE Light 2 (if they released this video above, then it looks like they are just about ready to hit the stores maybe – or the mobile providers will get it first).  

  7. The way I figure it, even 10″ digital picture frames are only a little cheaper, same to lcd e-readers. Heck even if you load it up with episodes of sponebob and give it to the kids on a car ride, you’re likely saving/coming really close in price to an alternative item.

    Oh and don’t forget the 50gb of cloud storage for free.

  8. Yesterday around 1pm EST I was at a Best Buy in MA when the word came down that they would be participating in the clearance sale. Luckily for me, the clerk sold me 2 units on the spot for $99.

    Maybe this deal will help make up for the $$$ I have lost thus far on HP stock.

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