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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 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.
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.
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.
trademarks expire if not used.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
TL;DR: "There was going to be a TouchPad Go, but it never got produced. Film at 11."
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.).
Somehow you truly believe selling a tablet at a price point that's hundreds of dollars below the manufacturing cost is a sustainable business model. Tell me, how much have YOU spent on extra apps, peripherals, etc. for the TouchPad you own? And, if you've bought peripherals - do you believe they cost nothing to manufacture?
I really don't get how some of you can be so disconnected from reality.
#DeleteChrome
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
Oh hey and you can do that on both the Kindle Fire, Nook Color and Nook Tablet for $199-249 by sideloading apps or on the Kindle Fire by just downloading it from a direct link. Amazing how they can do that for half the price...
^ 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.
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