CHESSNOID

Yesterday, HP announced it was getting out of the hardware business and discontinuing production of the HP Touchpad. The prices have been dropping recently at $50 a pop. With the recent news, stores in Canada are liquidating them at fire sale prices. I wonder when the prices will come down in the US too.

WSJ:

Hewlett-Packard, one of the biggest stock laggards on the day, briefly reversed its morning slump after reports that the world’s biggest computer maker will spin off its personal-computer business and is close to a $10 billion deal to acquire U.K. software firm Autonomy. H-P, which reports quarterly earnings after the closing bell, was down 3.9% in recent trading.

I read the American Bestbuy chain simply stopped selling them and are sending them back to HP.  So we may not get the same sale here. I definitely would have bought one.  I guess we should see the prices reflected soon on eBay and Amazon. Still $399 in the USA as of today.

Engadget:

Tempted by the promise of a $99 TouchPad, in spite of its imminent demise? Well, it looks like American Best Buys won’t be enjoying the same liquidation sale as our neighbors to the north. A couple of tipsters have reported that the big box electronics retailer has pulled the webOS tablets from its shelves and is shipping them back to HP. The slates have also disappeared from Best Buy’s website, though you can buy $30 screen protectors for one. You can still try to score one on the cheap straight from HP, but both the 16GB and 32GB models are currently listed as out of stock. Don’t get upset if you already plunked down $400 for 10-inches of webOS goodness — HP will refund you the difference. Call up the company or the retail partner you purchased it from, and ask. Just be prepared to sit on hold with all the rest of the folks trying to get their cash back.

Digital Trends:

Electronics retailers in Canada are selling off Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad at a massively reduced price – $99 for the 16GB model and $149 for the 32GB version. Websites of US retailers are currently showing the old price but can be expected to follow suit. The price cuts come in the wake of HP’s announcement two days ago that it would be ending smartphone and tablet production.

On July 1 this year, Hewlett-Packard launched the 16GB TouchPad tablet at a cost $499, mirroring the price of the equivalent iPad. Just over a month later, HP knocked $50 off the price tag.

A few days after that, another $50 was knocked off, bringing it down to $399. Then it emerged that electronics retailer Best Buy was bursting at the seams with unsold TouchPads, having shifted only 25,000 of 270,000 units held at its stores.

The next day, Hewlett-Packard announced it was leaving the PC business and would no longer be producing smartphones and tablets.

Now Daily Tech is reporting that from Saturday, in Canada at least, the 16GB TouchPad will be available for just $99, with the 32GB version being cut from $499 to only $149. Canada’s largest electronics retailer, Future Shop, is already showing the new prices on its website. The Canadian Best Buy website is also showing the sell-off price.

The US Best Buy website is, at the time of writing, still showing the old prices. But with around a quarter of a million of the devices clogging up Best Buy stockrooms across the country, one assumes it’s only a matter of time (hours? minutes?) before it puts the rock-bottom price tag on the tablet too. One thing’s for sure, they’re never going to shift them at $399. The websites of other electronics retailers in the US are also continuing to show the old price.

There are bound to be plenty of consumers out there who’ll be tempted by the sub-$100 tablet. They might purchase one as an investment, believing it’ll be an item of interest to collectors in 30 years or so. They may be curious to take a closer look at its WebOS operating system. Or they might simply be on the hunt for an unconventional table mat.

If you’re interested in getting one, keep your eyes peeled. The fire sale is about to begin.

I wonder how much shipping costs are from Canada?