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Friday, August 26, 2011

HP's TouchPad


I rarely talk about electronics, but the recent news of HP completely revamping their company and selling off their PC line (as well as discontinuing their just-released tablet and smart phone line) has had me pouring into HP-related news over the last week. 

Being a fan of HP (this post is actually being typed on my still-fairly-brand-new HP laptop), I was saddened by this news. Then we learned that HP and other retailers all over the country were drastically dropping the price of their seven week old tablet, the HP TouchPad, to a mere $99 for the 16GB. The TouchPad I harassed John about for two weeks straight after HP announced they were releasing a tablet back in May. The TouchPad that had been $400 (and we were seriously considering buying it at that price).



And there it was on Office Depot's website for a hundred bucks. However, once we tried to add it to our cart, the words 'Sold Out Online' popped up, and we knew this little commodity would be going quickly. 

To make a long story short, I scoured the internet until I learned that HP would not allow Best Buy to return the TouchPads, meaning Best Buy would have to sell them at the $99 price and take a loss. There were over 200,000 TouchPads in Best Buy's inventory, but they were still listed at $399 on their website Saturday night. And then, at the refresh of the page, the words 'No longer available' popped up. Too tired to do look further in to it, I decided to just go to sleep and see if I had any luck the next morning. 

Hannah Grace woke up at 7:20 Sunday morning. Before I got her out of the pack n play, I Googled the TouchPad for the latest news on the product. The first article that popped up confirmed that Best Buy would be selling TouchPad in stores at the $99 price beginning that morning. Not wanting to deal with crowds in an Atlanta Best Buy, I decided to take one more shot at Best Buy's online store. There it was, in stock for $99. I shook an in-deep-sleep John and told him, to which is groggily responded, ‘Get it’. I didn’t want to take the time to set up my laptop, so with one bar of 3G service in our hotel room, I successfully ordered the TouchPad via my iPhone.

I was a little nervous for a couple of days, because I knew Barns and Noble had to cancel several online orders because they ran out of stock while people were placing orders online before the inventory had been updated. But I received a shipment confirmation on Tuesday and my TouchPad arrived yesterday!

Despite what so many naysayers have said, the TouchPad IS a great tablet with an awesome operating system. I spent some time browsing apps last night, and while it won’t ever have the selection of apps the iPad has, the apps that are available are great.

From what I’ve read, the TouchPad is officially sold out everywhere, except for what HP still has in their warehouses. Those TouchPads have not been listed on HP’s website, but you can give them your e-mail and they will alert you when they are available. Just have a credit card handy, because these things are going fast!

In fact, not only are the TouchPads going fast, the accessories (i.e. charging docks, cases, etc) are almost completely sold out too! John and I spent WAY too much time last night searching the internet for a decently priced case and charging station, but gave up because it was starting to get frustrating. When you pay $99 for a tablet, you really don’t have any desire to shell out $50 on a case. I’m sure we’ll find them at a discounted price in the next couple of weeks.

What about you guys? Are there any tablets out there that have caught your eye? I’ve also played with a friend’s iPad, and while it’s pretty cool, I still love my TouchPad!

2 comments:

  1. I thought about ordering them on Sunday when I saw that price, but decided against it. I want a pad system, but I might wait until I go back to school to get it and call it a school present or something. We are using iPads in our schools. One student of ours is IN LOVE with it. Like he will work for it! Which is awesome! We went into an AT&T store with Kenneth's mom and sister and I started playing around with the iPad and that was the first time I was like.. wow.. I might want one of these. A mere 2 weeks ago!! :)

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  2. I meant to comment on this. Wish I had known this was happening, because even though I'm not into HP stuff, a tablet for $100 is a steal!

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