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HP TouchPad Go: $99?
redletterdave writes "The HP TouchPad Go, which is a smaller version of the company's signature TouchPad, may go on sale for $99 like its predecessor. The tablet features a 1023 x 768 resolution display, runs on webOS, and also has a removable cover with soft-touch coating to minimize fingerprints on the 7-inch screen. HP's new tablet also comes with a removable battery, 32GB of storage, a 3G radio, a five-megapixel camera and LED flash. HP designed the TouchPad Go around the same time as the larger model, but it failed to reach production stages when the company decided to kill off all devices running on the doomed webOS. If the tablet indeed sells for $99, it would be the cheapest tablet in the world besides the Aakash tablet, which was released by the Indian government for $35."
I'm still annoyed I missed the fire sale on the 'full size' model.
I have one of the firesale Touchpads. I think it is a great product. I mean how many Apple or Android tablets let you run vanilla debian? I'd get the Go in a heartbeat.
Such a good price/performance tablet was LONG overdue.
i wasnt gonna buy a tablet, but, i can buy this without any considerations that it will be a waste.
Read radical news here
Only a handful of these are known to exist and as far as anyone knows they never went past pre-production models. There is no warehouse full of them to get rid of in the first place, which is what the original HP Touchpad sale was about. HP's also not about to start making them, especially not to sell at a loss.
I thought AT&T owned the trademark "Go" for tablets. For those who aren't aware, Go Corp. developed one of the early tablets and tablet OS back in the late 80s, then encountered difficulties and got bought by AT&T. Any ideas about the trademark issue?
The sheer nerve.
There are plenty of very low-end chinese tablets that are under $99. They're typically terribly slow, but you can get them.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
A story speculating that devices may or may not exist that HP may or may not sell at a price which might or might not be $99, without so much as a hint that there is evidence suggesting they ever actually *made* any production-level product beyond pre-release testing and evaluation units. Given the Touchpad Go's schedule probably wouldn't have had it in mass production at the time HP killed the product line, it seems unlikely that they would have gone forward with production, unless their supply chain already had them over a barrel (which was allegedly the cause of the second wave of firesale, the third being to flush out returns). The problem is any thinking right now is merely speculation.
I'd probably take the plunge and get it if offered just for a WebOS device to play with (I have a few Palm Pres, but it's hard to justify playing with them when my Android phone has much better hardware in every way (bigger, higher resolution screen, faster processors, 4 times the ram, a camera that actually focuses, etc) and actually has support for things like Netflix.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
1023x768??? This a really good plan.
You are lucky, Ed Gruberman. Few novices experience so much of Ti Kwan Leep so soon.
TL;DR: "There was going to be a TouchPad Go, but it never got produced. Film at 11."
... the fact that this tablet will never see the light of day puts a rather large damper on the party.
P.S. The only one of these ever sold was on eBay a month or so ago for over $700
Get over yourself.
They had to cut something to get it down to a hundred bucks.
I don't see why HP should not revive the TouchPad Go (renamed to TouchPad 2, the other one renamed to Touch Pad Classic). There's a market out there, and they can make money other than on the hardware; (licensed) peripherals, App Catalog sales, there's already a Kindle app, perhaps also introduce a Nook Reader app and get a percentage of sales through that from B&N. Wouldn't that be cool, Kindle and Nook on one device?
Disclosure: I have a WiFi-only (= no GPS) TouchPad (32GB, $149) and use it as an e-reader about 75% of the time; unfortunately I have to convert everything to pdf as I haven't taken the time yet to use the alternate installer (for which I believe there is a proper reader that handles epub, etc.).
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Such a good price/performance tablet was LONG overdue.
Yeah it's amazing what a company can do when it doesn't factor in what it costs to manufacture a product but is simply trying to clear out inventory.
But if you're implying this would be a sustainable business model - you're delusional.
#DeleteChrome
Looks like a "let's see if they'll jump again" trial balloon from HP . . .
Though I have to admit that it's pretty good bait.
1023x768??? This a really good plan.
Come on, you wonder why this is the only tablet that can be sold for $100? It's the extra pixel that makes all the difference. The guy who owns the patent on pixel 1024 has been licensing it at an obscene markup to manufactures, it's good to see someone finally put a foot down and stop the madness.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
have any Slashdotters tried it? Is it good?
Holy crap at the amount of videos that start on that page. Not all of us are on 30mbit here.
If it can run ICS or Honeycomb and has both WiFi and Bluetooth, I'll buy one even at $250. I want an Android tablet for one purpose: to run Torque via an ODB-II adapter.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
But I /would/ honestly love to know what software or manufacturing defect that they can't be bothered to fix brings it down to 1023.
Were they afraid Apple would sue them for 1024?
1023, really? I'm betting it's 1024x768, but that's from the article -- worth a [sic] IMO, but I'll let it go.
As the article says, "many wonder" if it will be firesaled for $99, but there's no new reason to suppose any significant stock exists; it remains the same baseless speculation it's been for months.
And as for second-cheapest tablet, a dozen cheaper ones beg to differ.
I like the tablet and this is good news, but
1023 x 768 resolution display. Right.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Eken M009S can be had for ~55$ and available to anyone, list pricing.
See pandawill.com
Pulsed Media Seedboxes
I think the problem is everyone is dreaming of iMoney and thus making them overpowered and thus expensive. I mean think about it, what does the typical consumer do with a pad? They check their email, play Angry birds, and watch video. Now the video could be easily taken care of with a broadcom chip which is cheap, especially when you are buying in bulk, I doubt Angry birds is that big of a CPU hog, and email and webpages aren't gonna need much if you disallow flash support.
So I don't see why someone couldn't make a really nice tablet in the $180-$200 price range and make around $10-$15 a unit on them. A dualcore ARM CPU in the 1GHz range isn't that high and resistive will work fine for the screen as long as the OS is tweaked for it instead of just using a vanilla OS unoptimized for the platform like many are doing with android now. So while $100 might not be doable I don't see why sub $200 while still doing the tasks folks want a tablet for couldn't be achieved.
Personally i thought Dell had the right idea with that convertible netbook/tablet but screwed up with the choice of chip and the price which was too high for an atom based unit. Make it an AMD E-50 so it has enough power to do 1080P over HDMI, it'll also play games and even let them run their Windows programs, and price it for around $350 and the things would sell like hotcakes. Sadly american companies have all looked at Apple and see iMoney and frankly just won't accept 5%-8% profits on sales anymore as they all want to be Apple and make mounds of iCash anymore. But there is only one Apple and if this past year and a half has proved anything its that if you set your price equal or better than the iPad people will go with the more recognized brand. But if they were to target the masses with a machine that's "good enough" at the right price point there isn't any reason they can't make good steady profits year after year.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's designed as a 1024 pixel display - but if they only spec it as 1023, then they don't have to warranty it for one bad pixel.
Note they didn't spec 1023 x 768 *contiguous* pixels.
The device never reached production...
So what would they be selling? A handful of prototypes?
What an utter failure of basic logic.
Price of LCD panels have dropped significantly the last few months, ditto for the DRAM.
Coupled with the cheap ARM processor ~ it doesn't have to be dual or quad core chip, ~ the BOM of a tablet can be as low as $60
It might be the best tablet at that price point, but $80 Android tablets are becoming pretty common if you look in places like drug stores. I'm not saying I want one of the $80 tablets, but they certainly exist.
That actually covers 768 bad pixels... yuck!
missed it by that much.
that's cheap?!maybe , but i do not really want it . http://www.jpzentai.com/
I wish HP would figure out a viable business model for these devices... These constant rumors only peak interest in these products and what could have been. If they sold for around $200-250, I'm sure more people would have bought them. The capability is also there to develop an BOOK/EBAY/AMAZON/ITUNEs style of market to bolster sales of these products...
There is no BT in the published specs, how are you going to connect to the OBD-II interface? Sure, it's probably on there, but I wouldn't bet on it. You can probably get a used tablet for $250 or less, that will run your torque just fine.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I think the problem is everyone is dreaming of iMoney and thus making them overpowered and thus expensive. I mean think about it, what does the typical consumer do with a pad? They check their email, play Angry birds, and watch video. Now the video could be easily taken care of with a broadcom chip which is cheap, especially when you are buying in bulk, I doubt Angry birds is that big of a CPU hog, and email and webpages aren't gonna need much if you disallow flash support.
So I don't see why someone couldn't make a really nice tablet in the $180-$200 price range and make around $10-$15 a unit on them. A dualcore ARM CPU in the 1GHz range isn't that high and resistive will work fine for the screen as long as the OS is tweaked for it instead of just using a vanilla OS unoptimized for the platform like many are doing with android now. So while $100 might not be doable I don't see why sub $200 while still doing the tasks folks want a tablet for couldn't be achieved.
I believe there is something like this already. It's called the Amazon Kindle. Oh, and by the way it's most likely sold at loss.
"To prevent this day from getting any worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD THING" 1GJU8xLuDKDxEs4KLf8fAGyptoDsqvEsBT
I like it :-) www.wienaufsperrdienst.at
Link?
The Kindle was NEVER made to make money on the unit, it was clear from the start Amazon was going for the razor and blades model because they make out like a damned bandit on Ebooks. If one wanted to go that route with a tablet one clearly could but i believe that by shopping around and doing as Cook did (which i give that man credit, it was a brilliant move) and locking in chips at a set price point one could easily make a profitable sub $200 tablet with decent performance. i mean Asus was selling E-350 12 inch EEEs for just $300 before the flood and making money on every single unit so I don't see why changing the screen to resistive would raise the price above $350 while keeping the same profit margins. BTW the EEE series now comes with Expressgate built in which actually has a nice appstore and ebook sales and reader so i have no doubt Asus is not only making profits on the unit but on sale of games and books as well.
In the end though American companies are just too greedy. Look at Lenovo which has made money year after year on the business IBM threw away, or how the last CEO of HP wanted to get rid of the #1 selling PC division because it was making "only" 7% profits. If you are moving a hell of a lot of merchandise that 7% profit can still be a seriously fat number and even on smaller sales you are making a good steady income. But just as so many companies destroyed themselves in the 70s by ignoring good markets to try to beat IBM at its own game so too are companies lining up to shoot themselves in the head dreaming of iMoney just like all these idiot game publishers that try to beat Warcraft and end up going tits up. In the end there can only be one Apple and they have spent 30 years building themselves up to be the Prada of home electronics and I don't care how good the specs are competing with Apple at the same price point is suicide. to use a /. car analogy it would be like Ford thinking they could compete with Ferrari by putting out a souped up Mustang at the Ferrari price point. Stupid is as stupid does I suppose and its pretty clear that if any of the HP board had an original thought they would probably have their head explode.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
But is it square? Apple's gonna sue them...
Current netbook manufacturers make a profit on sub-$200 machines. What makes you think we're so far from a $100 tablet?
To answer some obvious questions: Yes, manufacturing devices like that is a cut throat business that will never produce ground breaking new inventions or awesome user experiences. No, the netbook and the tablet prices have no room for a OS license at Microsoft prices, the software development has to be funded in other ways -- and this is obviously working on the netbook side already.
http://www.dealextreme.com/c/tablets-1409?page=1&pagesize=20&pagesort=price
For something closer to home, you could go to CVS and get the craig. It's regular price is $99, but it is frequently on sale for $75-$80. Here is a review and info on rooting:
http://reviewhorizon.com/2011/05/how-to-root-install-custom-roms-and-add-android-market-for-cvs-craig-cmp-738a-75-android-tablet/
^ This.
I fail to see how a tablet can't be a lot cheaper than a netbook:
- Capacity touchscreen instead of keyboard
- simple case instead of clamshell
- Cheaper ARM CPU instead of Atom
- smaller battery
- No OS license
That should easily amount to $50 less than a netbook.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Did anyone else read Akatosh instead of Aakash in the last line? I used to be able to read, but then I took an arrow in the knee.
iPad = a rock? Well, if you put it that way, I have to agree!
Ya doofy n00b, there's nothing Android about the Touchpads. Did you miss the... and the part about the...? And the big firesale... and then the open...? (*sigh*)...
Yeah, I guess you did.
Do ya live under that rock^h^h^h^hiPad?
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee....
I think not...(*poof*)
It's called capitalism, here's how it works:
1) download the Android 4.0 ICS source code from http://source.android.com/
2) integrate any missing driver from the WebOS Linux kernel to the Android Linux kernel;
3) compile & install;
4) sell the damn thing at $250-300;
5) profit!!!
You're welcome.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
To introduce the 7" model for $99 to come in under the Kindle Fire - even if only at an introductory rate would be great marketing.
People will scoop them up creating a deeper customer base for the WebOS platform. Once you have a customer base for the platform, and the platform grows then you have a greater potential for perpetual sales. I've used iOS and use Android daily. I'd prefer WebOS over both. WebOS on the TouchPad hardware is awesome. WebOS is smooth, and after a little learning curve, works great, nice flow.
So I have no doubt of a success of a $99.00 tablet, even if they did it for a limited time (90-days) by then they could go up for a few months, by then the money would balance out between production/marketing costs and what they'd have sold in apps and accessories, and they'd have a steady market.
Revive the 10" tablet with a few upgrades (dual camera, replaceable battery, SD slot, HDMI out, 3G or LTE connection) -- I think then the revived TouchPad would have the user base, and clout to compete with iPad - at least in the same price points.
It's their New Year's Resolution.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
What has struck me odd is also some of those rare laptops which have 1680x945 resolution, in other words, an uneven amount of scanlines. I don't know if there's any downsides to it, but it always somehow bugs me.
From quite many sources.
Cheapest I have seen have been about $65, though I did pay $108(inclusive shipping) for mine to get capacitive screen, a 8gb internal storage, 1.5ghz processor model.
not sure if written by a stroke victim...or an 11 year old.
Simple.
"- Capacity touchscreen instead of keyboard"
A capitative touchscreen costs more than a keyboard.
"- simple case instead of clamshell"
In volumen the case is about $5 for one and $3 for the other. The molds are expensive and frankly making a good tablet case is harder than a clamshell netbook because it is expected to be a lot thinner and just as strong.
"- Cheaper ARM CPU instead of Atom"
Probably. I have no idea what OEM pricing on Atom is but I bet it is pretty dang cheap.
"- smaller battery"
But for a tablet you will use LiPoly while a netbook may use cheaper Li-ION batteries. The cost may actually be lower for the Netbook.
"- No OS license"
Well yes but that my actually add to the cost. Installing craplets like those trial virus checkers actually bring the price of windows down to 0 or lower for a lot of OEMs. Why do you think they put those one?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
After all, 2012 is a leap year.
The type of material used would affect the cost of "thinner and stronger". The molds themselves would not be more expensive. You are making 1 piece of plastic instead of up to 5 different pieces that netbooks can have. So even if the netbook was less complex in molding, you still have an added assembly cost just for case assembly.
Most people agree that Amazon is either just breaking even selling the Amazon Fire, or perhaps selling it at a slight loss (at $200 USD).
So it's obvious that even a 7" HP TouchPad Go, let alone a 10" model is being sold below cost at $200.
Remember HP added feature that are not included in the TouchPad Go like:
- higher resolution screen
- GPS
- twice the storage
- twice the RAM
- front and rear facing cameras (including flash)
- better CPU (a TI OMAP 1GHz dual-core versus dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor)
HP is just dumping them now, there's no more coming once these are sold...
My teenage niece got one for Christmas and her hands have been glued to it since. Although it lacks the GPS, GS and numerous Apps of the #1 tablet, it does most of what she wants: mail, browse, internet radio, video ...
The Kindle was NEVER made to make money on the unit, it was clear from the start Amazon was going for the razor and blades model because they make out like a damned bandit on Ebooks.
What difference does it make? They make money. You are going on and on about Broadcom chips and resistive touch shit above and Amazon delivered a great little tablet for a great price. I bought one for my girlfriend for Christmas and she loves the thing. It has a brilliant screen, capacitive multi-touch, feels solid in the hand and has a tremendous amount of content for her to enjoy. Oh, and Amazon makes money. Yes, they sell the things at something like a 10 dollar loss (if you believe the pundits) but that won't last for long. Economy of scale tends to solve that kind of problem quick/fast and Amazon has sold millions already. When the kindle 2 comes out, per unit money will be made. Believe that shit. Fuck a resistive piece of shit when I can get a Kindle for just a few more dollars.
The answer to your question is the Ainol (pronounced "eye-nol") Novo 7 Advanced, which can run Ice Cream Sandwich.
I'm not a shill for Merimobiles but they seem to have the cheapest price. I'll buy one as soon as they get back in stock.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Probably. I have no idea what OEM pricing on Atom is but I bet it is pretty dang cheap.
There are several knock-on cost savings in using a SoC instead of Atom + chipset. Atom needs a second chip, it needs motherboard traces run for connecting the two, and it needs motherboard traces run for connecting the RAM, while ARM chips often come in package-on-package configurations so the RAM chip just slots on top of the SoC. All of this adds to the complexity of the Atom board, which adds to its cost.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Archos 101 g9 at 279 euro for 1 ghz model isn't bad but it runs honeycomb there is an 8 inch version for around 40 euro less. There are 1.2 and 1.5 ghz versions around now.
To be honest if HP have done the hardwork building the hardware why not flash android on the devices and sell them at a fair price, about 300 euro would be enough.
If they are open then debian webos and android could all be choices for 0S
They don't really have anything else in this space so surely they can make money from this.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
I think the OP should have a look at the hundreds of tablets selling for under $99 and realize that this touchpad would be a good long ways away from being the cheapest tablet on the market. Maybe if you kick out all of the chinatabs, the cheapies sold at toysrus and so forth.
Take a look at the 'China Tablets'. They more or less provide what you'd expect of them (and can usually play videos and Angry birds too) while sometimes even featuring HDMI ports for external television sets for a very affordable price.
...
However you'd have to live with resistive displays (not on all models), low-powered CPU's, low-resolution LCD panels, not-too-great battery life (3-6 hours) and sometimes unusable audio outputs and some devices tend to break down after a few weeks (check forums for issues in advance...)
Oh and there are even copies of the copies =)
I got a Flytouch2 and while not great for most stuff (especially not when compared to an iPad) it works for reading mail, checking the weather forecast,
Wow reading comprehension not taught to ACs huh? If someone could tell me where the hidden setting is to block ACs I'd be grateful as I must lose an IQ point every time I deal with one. As to answer your question if you would have bothered reading the parent post I was responding to he said "There has been a sub $200 tablet on the market, its called the Kindle and they lose money on every unit" implying that there simply is no way to have a functional unit at that price point without taking a bath. I of course pointed out that Kindle was never designed to make money, it was designed to push Ebooks because Amazon makes an incredible profit from Ebooks so losing a few bucks on kindle units means nothing. Last i heard the sale of just three books puts kindle into the black and everything after 4 is pure profit. With numbers like that personally i'm shocked Amazon doesn't go lower, i'd drop the price to the point where it took 5 books to break even because what good is an Ereader without books?
next time try reading the parent before jumping in okay? The new layout makes it beyond simple to follow a conversation back to the parent where you would have easily seen that your post was completely pointless in the context of the thread. nobody said the kindle was a bad unit, simply that it followed the razor and blades model instead of the retail model which means it, like your post, was pointless when discussing sub $200 tablets.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
True but how much will that come too. $5 per machine? $10? the touch screens add a lot to the cost of the device. That is why the cheap tablets cheap out on the touch screen.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm not sure how much of the patent garbage from smartphones has gotten into the tablet area, but I would imaging that patent licensing also increases prices.
Slashdot: when you can't tell if it's a stroke victim or an 11 year old, it's probably both!
But seriously, trying an age-based put-down to a 4-digit UID, without even acknowledging that? Doesn't get much lamer, my fellow AC.
Thank you for slapping me in the face with OP's e-peen. I totally forgot the slashdot rules. If you see a low ID, get on your knees and start sucking. I foolishly thought I could comment on his bizarre way of speaking without acknowledging his massive e-peen. Good thing I have been posting AC for 13 years, or this could have ruined my own valuable slashdot reputation.
It might have actually been his child posting it, or maybe he left his laptop open at the coffee shop/library/stroke ward at the hospital. Maybe it was stolen/sold/hacked. Maybe he signed up as a fetus. Don't know, don't care. Just wanted to point out that his post was hard to parse. I used sarcasm, just like I'm doing now.