$99 HP Touchpads - FIRESALE!!

WalzAaronFFG · #1

OK so some of you may have heard that HP is discontinuing their WebOS devices. As of today 8/20 there is a firesale on the HP touchpad 16GB and 32GB.

I'm not going to lie, they aren't as great as iPads. The app selection kind of sucks, but the browser is great and is flash capable, the OS is strong, the hardware is decent. Plus, for $99 you can't get a cheaper multitouch tablet.

I just got an order in at Officedepot.com and am crossing my fingers that they didn't just forgot to update their stock on the site. Many sites are already sold out, and many have not even dropped the price from $399 to $99 for the 16GB yet.

I will be watching Amazon and Best Buy and some other of the best known retailers for the price drop and I will keep this thread informed of any information I find.

as of right now Officedepot.com still says they have them in stock for $129 for the 16GB and 150 for the 32GB (not sure why they are taxing, but it is still hundreds off the original price so I just put an order in for the **** of it)

Happy shopping everyone. If all goes according to plan I may be chatting with all of you via a new tablet :)

Dr. Snubnose · #2

$99 seems like a great price for such an item....but since HP's announcement to pull the cord so to say on this unit and others in their line up due to really poor sales and other issues....I wonder if you'll even be able to get parts for this pad in a years time....that to me would seem to make this a disposable bargain once it breaks down....am I reading this wrong?.....Doc :D

WalzAaronFFG · #3

There probably won't be long term support at this price.. no surprise there, but this tablet is actually pretty nice.

You don't need parts for a tablet really. In most cases the internal components aren't user replaceable... at least not easily enough for me to want to do it.

It just couldn't compete with the iPad. When HP bought Palm and took over WebOS they were hoping to compete. Truth is they have a great OS, but no developer support for their app store. Herein lies the problem. Android and iOS will rule the tablet world and HP is calling it quits.

This tablet has a lot of great things going for it. I would never buy it at
$400 or even $300, but for $120 bucks i'll give it a shot. 1.2GHz Dual Core snap dragon CPU, 1GB ram, full Webkit browser with Adobe flash support, etc. ****, I would just buy one to read Spyderco forum on the shitter :) LOL

It isn't going to be for everyone. Many people would probably rather put $100 towards a tablet with a brighter future of developer support, but I would suggest people take advantage of this short sale while it lasts. It is supposedly only going to run for 2 days this weekend.

This sale is for real though. Walmart is doing price matches in some states (have seen images of receipts). HP has warehouses full of these things that aren't selling so the firesale is no surprise to me. According to AT&T HP just canceled the Pre 3 launch and all WebOS devices will be gone by Q4 of this year.

I'm being told Officedepot is now sold out along with target and others, but Amazon and Best Buy still haven't dropped the price yet. If you are reading this and want one I would suggest staying up and checking regularly.

Dr. Snubnose · #4

Thanks for the info WalzA, I think I understand the situation better after your last post....Doc :D

WalzAaronFFG · #5

Well, walmart online dropped their price finally.... they sold out in 5 seconds. Amazon is one of the last big ones that people are waiting on for the price drop.

I am still crossing my fingers that Officedepot has live stock on their site... otherwise they will probably have thousands of angry customers who won't be getting the discount they thought they were getting.

Donut · #6

Can you hack/flash/root them to anything useful?

WalzAaronFFG · #7

Honestly IDK. I was hoping it would run Android since it uses the same CPU as many android devices, but I have to wait and see if I even get mine before I start getting my hopes up with that whole thing.

It has a kindle app so you can just use it as an ereader, at $99 its cheaper than a kindle too. Plus the browser is very good. Some reviewers say its better than the android browser

gunnut35 · #8

The amazon, (ship from amazon) pulled it.
Man wanted to get in on this deal. I think it does run android..

gunnut35 · #9

One of the stores on amazon just lowered the price from $414.97 to $414.70.
" I guess they did mot get the memo "

WalzAaronFFG · #10

Honestly I may not even be getting one. They are discontinued and Best Buy and Staples are sending their stock back to HP. HP over sold and Office depot says they are getting lots of calls from people who attempted an in store pickup and were unsuccessful.

According to twitter there are already people actively working on porting Android Honeycomb to the HP touchpad.

WebOS is actually a great tablet OS. Palm just struggled to compete with the iPhone and iPad cause they were totally broke. Once HP bought them everyone assumed that HP would use its business scale to flood the market with touchpads and Pre phones, but they sold like crap, probably due to poor marketing and being late to the game.

I would just keep calling local stores and try to find one. Most of them are totally sold out online... probably oversold, in fact.

I will keep everyone update on my Office Depot order status. According to the woman on the phone my touchpad should be here this Thurs the 25th, but she said that the possibility always exists that they will email me and tell me that the product has been discontinued and is not available.

Cross your fingers :)

angusW · #11

Thanks for the heads up Aaron. I just checked the Bestbuys, Futureshops and Staples around the GTA and they are all sold out. I would have bought one at that price. Can't beat $99 for a device like this.

WalzAaronFFG · #12

angusW wrote:Thanks for the heads up Aaron. I just checked the Bestbuys, Futureshops and Staples around the GTA and they are all sold out. I would have bought one at that price. Can't beat $99 for a device like this.

I know. An iPad or one of the higher end Android tablets are always going to be nicer, but you just can't beat the price. There are some complaints about he early software being a total lagfest, but I hear it has gotten 100% better since the most recent WebOS 3.0 update with bug fixes.

Plus the browser runs flash so you can use full YouTube instead of the HTML5 Mobile version many devices use.

The display and hardware is quite nice as well.

here is one of many reviews:

http://www.slashgear.com/hp-touchpad-review-29162207/

sarguy · #13

I happened to watch a display stand of these puppies roll by me while at costco today. Had no clue they were D/C'd or going for cheap (although I don't know if Costco would have honored a $99 price). I wouldn't mind getting one just as an E-reader, and then port honeycomb to it when it's available. I'll check out staples tomorrow.

WalzAaronFFG · #14

sarguy wrote:I happened to watch a display stand of these puppies roll by me while at costco today. Had no clue they were D/C'd or going for cheap (although I don't know if Costco would have honored a $99 price). I wouldn't mind getting one just as an E-reader, and then port honeycomb to it when it's available. I'll check out staples tomorrow.

From what I understand Staples and Best Buy said they sent their stock back. Best Buy had 270,000 of these and only sold 25k (including returned units) so when they discontinued them the plan was to send them back to HP

I called staples this morning (cause I want a backup incase my Office Depot order doesn't go through) and before I even got the word TouchPad out of my mouth the guy said "WE DON'T HAVE ANY" in a pissed off tone. I got the impression he had been asked that question a few times before I called :)

Anyway I am now reading on the tech blogs that Best Buy may have decided to sell them rather then send them back after all. I would just start calling stores like mad. You may find one that can be held for you.

If I get mine it will just be a cheaper kindle and Web Browser.

My office depot order says "3 day delivery pending" as the status. Apparently lots of people have this same status and the lady on the phone told me it looks good, but since the product is discontinued it may not go through.

I'm crossing my fingers. Honestly I can live without it, but for $99 I would love to get my hands on one.

I also did some reading on Engadget and apparently HP plans on supporting WebOS into the future. Essentially they are just done making hardware. It seems that their future plans are to keep working on WebOS, but license it to OEMs for a cost. This saves them the trouble of dealing with poor hardware sales (like they are now)

PS: Costco did honor the price. HP's site links to them as a retailer for the TouchPad and all the listed retailers had the $99 pricetag

angusW · #15

WalzAaronFFG wrote:I called staples this morning (cause I want a backup incase my Office Depot order doesn't go through) and before I even got the word TouchPad out of my mouth the guy said "WE DON'T HAVE ANY" in a pissed off tone. I got the impression he had been asked that question a few times before I called :)

lol. A few stores I called also resulted in "irritated, please not the same question" responses :D

WalzAaronFFG · #16

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... tid=179056

You may have some luck finding one at best buy via this "find it at our stores" thing. This one is for the 32GB

This one is for the 16GB: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... tid=181346

This SlickDeals thread is a really great place to keep track of who is OOS and who hasn't posted the lower price yet.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3220862

WalzAaronFFG · #17

Another quick update:

Amazon still isn't showing the $99 price, but they do have them for $300, $100 less than the $399 price they were yesterday. This may mean they are going to discount them further in the future, but who knows.

http://www.amazon.com/HP-TouchPad-9-7-I ... 655&sr=8-2

Spider bite · #18

I picked up a 16gb and a 32gb at my local Best Buy this AM. The crazy thing is they had them in stock and for sale on Best Buys website early this AM with local pick up and I bought the 2 for instore pick up. Well then I receive an email from best buy saying they couldnt fill my order. After a half hour on the phone with their customer service asking why they couldnt fill my order if they were in stock at the Gurnee IL store. They just kept saying sorry we dont have any. So I wanted to go up to the store and see for myself. When I pull up 10 min before open there are about 50 people standing in line waiting to get in and a Best Buy guy handing out flyers. I ask him whats going on? He says "we are selling the last of the HP touchpads". I am like WTF they just stopped my order and told me you didnt have any. He said "no we have over 150 of them" So they were handing out a flyer to anyone that wanted one and they were guaranteed one with this flyer. So I got the 32gb and my girl got the 16gb. People were just grabbing the flyers cuz there was a line out the door and they wanted some kind of deal too. Some of the people didnt even know what they were in line for. A lady behind me said she was going to use her's for an alarm clock...lol.. She had no idea what it even was! All of them were sold in 30 min. Crazy!

WalzAaronFFG · #19

Yeah im in southern WI and almost drove an hour and a half to the Mchenry IL store. Is saw they had them in Gurnee as well. I'm glad you were able to get one.

I'm compulsively checking my order at Office Depot to see if it shipped, but I have a feeling they dropped the ball like most other retailers did with this firesale. If I don't get one its NBD, I'm buying a brand new MacBook Pro at the end of the month so I will get my tech fix for the year, but I would love a cheap tablet to browse the web and read books.

HP has a site that will notify people when they come back in stock (they said they will be getting more), but if this all falls through I may buy a Nook Color and root it.

Congrats on your purchase. Let me know how you like it. Someone is working on an Android port ATM, so keep your eyes peeled.

jwingfie · #20

I picked up two 16GBs last night at Best Buy. It's no iPad, but I'm really enjoying mine. I'm sending the second one to my brother.