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HP Reviving the $99 Touch Pad On December 11th
Frankie70 writes "Starting Sunday, December 11th at 6:00 p.m. Central time, 16GB and 32GB Touchpads will be available on HP's ebay store. A $79 accessory bundle will also be available, which includes a case, charging dock and wireless keyboard. The caveat with this deal is that these are refurbished TouchPads rather than the brand new models sold during the first firesale."
As a famous jerkwad once said: "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
I think their initial intention was to throw WebOS and the TouchPad overboard, but consider that tablets are already racing to the bottom. HP's firesale pricing happens to already be there, and maybe a better strategy is to become a strong #2 in the market so they can upsell you to a more normally-priced $149 tablet next year. That would make more sense that just pulling the cord.
Even if you dont want to hear of WebOS (i like it better than Android) you have Android to install on it, a $99 android tablet with such specs is a gift.
I have both the Touchpad and the iPad 2. I like the Touchpad interface better than the iPad interface.
That being said, you have to understand that there are a limited number of Apps for WebOS. So you won't be able to find WebOS versions of your favorite apps. But it is a great for browsing, email, twitter, facebook, and can be used as a picture frame / photo viewer as it has a slideshow mode when plugged in. This alone is worth the $$.
You currently have the option to dual boot to an older version of Andriod (Cyanogenmod) that has been developed. It's still in beta, so there are bugs to be worked out. On the horizon is the pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow, Ice Cream Sandwich. It is anticipated that a version of Ice Cream Sandwich for the Touchpad will be available before March of 2012. This opens up the Touchpad to the Andriod marketplace and makes it a cheap modern table.
Except this ain't profit, this is dumping inventory at a loss, like the first time.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
"HP's ebay store" == HP's garage sale.
Maybe this is a good sign that HP's returning to their roots.
At least ebay has a chance of keeping up with the load, as opposed to HP's shopping site. oh, how embarrassing for a wannabe "services" company...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
http://xkcd.com/221/
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
These are refurbs. And they're refurbs of an EOL'd tablet that they're not making any more of, and won't have spare parts to fix (since they're using all the spare parts to make as many as possible to reduce the bath they're taking by scrapping the product). Pretty questionable purchase, but for $100 maybe it's worth it.
My sister has two - one for each kid. The games they had seemed fun, and if they break it it's not like it's a $600 iPad.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Where's my pepper spray?
For obvious reasons:
- The TP is rooted, sort of, so the OS is no longer an issue. If Cyanogen is working on it, do not bet against them. You will lose. And there is another team working on this.
- For the money, even stock, it's cool.
- Even a 90-day warranty should give you time to find out if it's a lemon.
- There will be a support community out there.
Now HP is right to toss these refurbs out for several reasons:
- Most of these came back from people too lazy or stupid to follow instructions and resolve their issue.
- If HP can't repair defective units, by whatever means, then all you TP owners have tablets that are just as dead as Elvis, it's only a matter of time. I'm trusting these were either repaired or reloaded.
- No point in keeping backstock of refurbs beyond the warranty needs.
- HP could be deciding that the end of the TP debacle is the day they have NO TPs available. Period. And the sooner the better.
So stop yer whinin' and get in line.
Oh, and all you crybabies out there with your sad tales of trying to buy one back when - I've heard all the complaints. All par for the course. Bad things happen during these closeouts, and resellers are often either morons or thieves. Caveat Emptor. Same as it ever was.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I've purchased dozens of refurbished consumer electronics, and I know other people who have as well, nearly all of those devices are still working just fine months and years beyond their warranty expiration. I've seen maybe 5-10% failure rate on refurbs, which is about the same as my record with "brand new" consumer electronics. YMMV, IANAL, KTHXBYE
Perhaps an important point - the HP eBay store only ships within the US via UPS. So even if all you wanted was the accessory kit, if you're outside the US, you're SOL.
Those outside the US will just have to bid on them after arbitrage.
And the site's open to HP employees on the 11th. General public is on Monday ,the 12th.
Only good part is it's 2 per customer.
Subject: Oblig XKCD
Why does everyone feel the need to link to a XKCD comic when it is NOT related to the discussion / article?
I think he already answered your question - Oblig is short for Obligatory: Required by a legal, moral, or other rule; compulsory
How could someone *not* post an obligatory XKCD link?
I have an iPad. I have a Touchpad. I'm not a big app buyer. Browser, maps, play back videos I download to the Touchpad (it acts like a flash drive when connected to any operating system), email, VPN, some light typing, YouTube. All the flash in a browser you'd want. Once you learn how to close a window (just toss it off the top of the display) you're good to go. Within two days of getting my Touchpad I've stopped using my iPad. Literally. I haven't gone back. What about music. Come on, is that what you'd use a tablet for? OK, it has booming stereo speakers and I listen to Internet radio and podcasts, too. It's good enough even without apps (though I'm eyeing the app to make a bluetooth connection with an automobile monitor to have instantaneous display of MPG and other car functions). Do I have to say it? For the price.... come on! Your iPad is a sunk cost. You're only paying to free yourself (I can now do the crossword on a newspaper's web page, see those special report videos, and find out what I was missing). For the price, the hardware is thrown in for free.
So... they will soon be for sale at Ikea?
Most consumer electronics that are factory refurbished end up with completely new parts simply because the parts aren't repairable in the traditional sense. They whip in a new part and solder it in. So the refurbs are as good as the originals.
So, your master plan is to make up the profit in volume of sales?
So, the volume price is $99, the manufacturing cost *per TouchPad* is $318 (http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/News/Pages/HP-TouchPad-Carries-$318-Bill-of-Materials.aspx).
So, HP "make" -$219 per TouchPad. I can see why they need volume sales to make up the profit... ;)
I'm not sure where the myth that these sorts of devices cost buttons to make and are just sold at crazy high "all gravy" margins? Oh wait, it's what they think Apple are doing with the iPad. Even the really good Android competitors to the iPad are only $100 or so less - so still in the $400 range.
Selling them at $99 does not make for a sound business plan unless you plan to make up the money by some other channel (like having your games console as a loss leader, for example). A $219 loss per tablet is a pretty steep loss leader though, by anyone's measure.
For 99 bucks its a deal. Even if its a non product at this point it will still do what it does now for a while.
---- Booth was a patriot ----