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HP Reviving the $99 Touch Pad On December 11th

Posted by timothy on from the this-too-shall-pass dept.

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."

12 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Er, no. by irregular_hero · · Score: 4, Funny

    As a famous jerkwad once said: "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

    1. Re:Er, no. by irregular_hero · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just speaking as a person who tried and failed multiple times to get orders in for one of the firesale units with multiple vendors -- and went to multiple retail stores in search of one... only to be shut out by the douchebags who bought dozens at a time. And whose attempts to get orders in with a certain few vendors ended up tying up charges against my credit cards for weeks as, slowly -- one by one -- each vendor admitted "yeah, we just don't have enough. sorry for sitting on your cash."

      Have fun, all you wild-eyed bargain hunters. I'll just sit this one out.

    2. Re:Er, no. by need4mospd · · Score: 5, Informative

      You can only get these at one place, the HP ebay store, with a two purchase limit. Happy shopping.

    3. Re:Er, no. by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Informative

      My mother-in-law ordered one from HP and was met with silence. For the entire month she put up with it, they'd charge her account $150 every friday and then return it. Effectively this meant she was missing $150 even though she didn't have the item. Additionally, she had typo'd her address when she submitted it. When she called to correct it, surprise surprise, they couldn't. All she could do was cancel and resubmit the order... which would have meant no Touchpad for her. While technically her fault, why the call center she talked to couldn't modify her order is beyond me.

      My experience was a little better. I didn't mind the $150 disappearing and the address was correct when I submitted it, but HP was TERRIBLE about telling me wtf was going on. On their web page the order status was set to something bizarre like "ORDER COMPLETE" or something that made it sound like my Touchpad was right here. It wasn't. When I tried to email them I was given a generic answer about how I'd get my order within a few weeks and they're very sorry and it took three paragraphs to explain these two simple concepts. It was definitely a source of frustration.

      I wouldn't say it "doesn't hurt". It may not hurt enough, but unless they've dramatically improved their customer service, it likely will hurt some.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  2. HP isn't exiting WebOS by caywen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:HP isn't exiting WebOS by Rogue+Haggis+Landing · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Considering the multi-billion dollar loss WebOS has been so far, merely selling a few more next year at a slightly higher price doesn't seem like a winning strategy to me.

      There's a bit of a false assumption here. The money that HP has lost on WebOS is a sunk cost. It's gone and it's not coming back, no matter what happens. HP should be thinking entirely of the future at this point. Can WebOS generate a worthwhile profit from today onward? If so, they should hold on to it, even if it never makes back the initial investment.

      People often don't think this way. If I lose a ton of money on an asset I'm likely to get rid of it, even if it stands to be mildly profitable in the future. HP shouldn't be thinking that way. (I should point out that I have no idea if they actuall are or not.)

      That said, I'd love an open source WebOS, if only to keep Google honest.

  3. Re:No Love for the Touch Pad? by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. Re:Should I buy one? by David_Hart · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. Re:Oblig XKCD by LandDolphin · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/221/

    --
    Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
  6. Re:Refurbished stuff has by gregthebunny · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

  7. Re:Should I buy one? by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 5, Funny

    .This opens up the Touchpad to the Andriod marketplace and makes it a cheap modern table.

    So... they will soon be for sale at Ikea?

  8. Re:this may be an unexpected lesson by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.