HP TouchPad 16GB - $99.

[shortylickens]

OT, but anyone know a place or site that's got the TouchStone dock at a decent price? All the places I've seen are selling it for more than $50.

The cheapest is Amazon for 63 dollars, used.

Dont worry, they arent making any more of these things so eventually I expect the prices for accessories to plummet.
Of course, the quarter million they have on the market are selling like hot cakes so in the immediate future, expect prices to rise.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

which state?

California. I got two. Went to two different Best Buys. got a 32 and a 16 =)

 

[amdhunter]

well that explains it, if you are regretting this 100 dollar purchase how much do you regret the Ipad2!?

lol, I like my iPad 2 a lot. I have the Verizon 3G version so it's a blast to take it anywhere and have internet.

I'll be playing around more seriously with the Touchpad today. Going to tweak, theme and muck about with it and see what it can really do.

Anyone know any good apps to stream/transcode video for it?

 

[amdhunter]

OT, but anyone know a place or site that's got the TouchStone dock at a decent price? All the places I've seen are selling it for more than $50.

I paid $65 for mine by pricematching at Microcenter (used B&H for pricematch.) Even at $65 I think it's a deal - I left my Touchpad on it all last night streaming music, and it didn't hiccup once, looks incredible and is fully charged and ready to go.

 

[Capt Caveman]

fwiw - BB had them online for a little this morning but is OOS now and Staples has the 16gb listed for $49 but haven't heard of a single person getting one at that price.

 

[SunnyD]

*Finally* got the order confirmation email from HP this morning.

 

[mnewsham]

If anyone is waiting for an HP confirmation email dont worry too much, I ordered mine at 9PM friday and just got my confirmation this morning.

 

[Tristicus]

Can't wait to finally get the 32gb so I can put Ubuntu on it or start hacking it. Gonna erase the 16gb and give it to the family for Christmas.

 

[basslover1]

*Finally* got the order confirmation email from HP this morning.

Same here. Ordered it about 10pm Friday and woke up to the email in my inbox at about 5am. Still no shipping number yet however. That'll probably show up tomorrow. Hopefull I'll have it by Friday, but I was a cheapass and opted for the free shipping.

 

[aphex]

Ended up with a 16gb from Amazon for $99 and a 32gb from B&H for $149. I'll likely end up giving the 16gb to my parents.

 

[Powermoloch]

have a confirmation from HP and Datavis....life is good

 

[Pliablemoose]

LOL, just read an article about how tablet manufacturers should see the monster sales of this thing and realize that people want cheap tablets.

HP is losing ~$200/per 16GB TouchPad, and they think everyone should drop their prices? The profit on these things is already razor thin, and they want everyone to sell them for less than it costs to make them?

WTH???

 

[SlitheryDee]

LOL, just read an article about how tablet manufacturers should see the monster sales of this thing and realize that people want cheap tablets.

HP is losing ~$200/per 16GB TouchPad, and they think everyone should drop their prices? The profit on these things is already razor thin, and they want everyone to sell them for less than it costs to make them?

WTH???

Yeah. This is definitely an extreme example of how much price can effect consumer purchasing though. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the average tablet price creep down a bit after this. I also wouldn't be surprised if tablet makers started feeling more pressure to cut corners to hit ever lower price points. That's already happened to some degree, but we're still stuck with acceptable expensive tablets and cheap crap tablets with nothing in between.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Yeah. This is definitely an extreme example of how much price can effect consumer purchasing though. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the average tablet price creep down a bit after this. I also wouldn't be surprised if tablet makers started feeling more pressure to cut corners to hit ever lower price points. That's already happened to some degree, but we're still stuck with acceptable expensive tablets and cheap crap tablets with nothing in between.

There will always be a market for the really cheap crap, but most iPad owners are very happy with them, and Apple actually priced the 16GB WiFi pretty aggressively.

 

[Dangerer]

There will always be a market for the really cheap crap, but most iPad owners are very happy with them, and Apple actually priced the 16GB WiFi pretty aggressively.

There's will always be a market for quality, name-brand, CURRENT tech selling for 1/3 the manufacturing cost. Is that what you meant to say? I don't think the chipads are in particularly high demand.

 

[Dulanic]

Wish I could have found one in stock, would have loved to have a cheap ass tablet lol

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah. This is definitely an extreme example of how much price can effect consumer purchasing though. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the average tablet price creep down a bit after this. I also wouldn't be surprised if tablet makers started feeling more pressure to cut corners to hit ever lower price points. That's already happened to some degree, but we're still stuck with acceptable expensive tablets and cheap crap tablets with nothing in between.

I'm actually curious how many of the people purchasing them are planning to use them or give them as gifts, and how many are just trying to make a quick buck. I'd bet that at least 50% of these TouchPads end up on eBay/Craigslist.

 

[Pliablemoose]

There's a ton on both already.

 

[ChaoZ]

Anyone know if there's a Chinese language option on this thing? I'll try to score another one for my parents if it can.

 

[basslover1]

LOL, just read an article about how tablet manufacturers should see the monster sales of this thing and realize that people want cheap tablets.

HP is losing ~$200/per 16GB TouchPad, and they think everyone should drop their prices? The profit on these things is already razor thin, and they want everyone to sell them for less than it costs to make them?

WTH???

Sounds like it was written by someone who's never worked in any form of retail.

HP would probably have to sell 3-4 times as many units (at full retail) to even hope of breaking even after this fire sale.

The Android tablet market over the next few months is going to be very stagnant, IMO. The iPad will still sell well, but the 400 dollar Honeycomb tabs wont be moving very well.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Sounds like it was written by someone who's never worked in any form of retail.

HP would probably have to sell 3-4 times as many units (at full retail) to even hope of breaking even after this fire sale.

The Android tablet market over the next few months is going to be very stagnant, IMO. The iPad will still sell well, but the 400 dollar Honeycomb tabs wont be moving very well.

I know a ton of iPad2 owners that bought one for outdoors/bathroom/work/beat the crap out of your device use

 

[goog40]

Sounds like it was written by someone who's never worked in any form of retail.

HP would probably have to sell 3-4 times as many units (at full retail) to even hope of breaking even after this fire sale.

The Android tablet market over the next few months is going to be very stagnant, IMO. The iPad will still sell well, but the 400 dollar Honeycomb tabs wont be moving very well.

They were already slashing prices on the Android tablets before HP made their move. Staples had their $100 off any tablet promo and just recently Acer slashed the price of the Iconia from $450 to $400 and most stores were offering a $100 GC on top of that for a net cost of $300. Amazon had a 20% off coupon for Amazon Visa cardholders that worked on a lot of tablets, pulling the net cost for the Iconia to just over $200.

So far, I believe the only Android tablet that's had any sort of success would be the Transformer, and even the interest in those has died down since the first couple months when supply was getting ramped up. I thought the Galaxy 10.1 would be the most popular Android tablet, but they're still getting outsold by Transformers on Amazon despite being newer to the market.

I'm curious who will actually continue to produce tablets a year or two from now. With the manufacturing costs, R&D, marketing, etc.. that goes into selling tablets, it's an accomplishment to simply not lose money on these.

 

[preslove]

They were already slashing prices on the Android tablets before HP made their move. Staples had their $100 off any tablet promo and just recently Acer slashed the price of the Iconia from $450 to $400 and most stores were offering a $100 GC on top of that for a net cost of $300. Amazon had a 20% off coupon for Amazon Visa cardholders that worked on a lot of tablets, pulling the net cost for the Iconia to just over $200.

So far, I believe the only Android tablet that's had any sort of success would be the Transformer, and even the interest in those has died down since the first couple months when supply was getting ramped up. I thought the Galaxy 10.1 would be the most popular Android tablet, but they're still getting outsold by Transformers on Amazon despite being newer to the market.

I'm curious who will actually continue to produce tablets a year or two from now. With the manufacturing costs, R&D, marketing, etc.. that goes into selling tablets, it's an accomplishment to simply not lose money on these.

I think that when you can go into a bestbuy, office depot or target and just walk out with a 10" honeycomb (or later android iteration) tablet, you'll see consistent growth. $200 is a 40% decrease in price from the iPad, which imho is enough of a difference to spur more sales. I think at that point, you'll see a rapid increase in overall tablet sales at the low end with Android, while the iPad will continue to sell well and make apple a ton of money, but lose ground in the overall tablet market share.

 

[goog40]

I think that when you can go into a bestbuy, office depot or target and just walk out with a 10" honeycomb (or later android iteration) tablet, you'll see consistent growth. $200 is a 40% decrease in price from the iPad, which imho is enough of a difference to spur more sales. I think at that point, you'll see a rapid increase in overall tablet sales at the low end with Android, while the iPad will continue to sell well and make apple a ton of money, but lose ground in the overall tablet market share.

The problem is it's currently impossible to sell a tablet for $300 with current specs and not lose money. I suspect even at $400, HP was losing money on each Touchpad they sold.

 

[ViRGE]

The problem is it's currently impossible to sell a tablet for $300 with current specs and not lose money. I suspect even at $400, HP was losing money on each Touchpad they sold.

Indeed. If the BoM is even half-way right they were paying roughly $300 and $350 for 16GB and 32GB units respectively. At $400 they would be making a gross profit, but after R&D, support, and advertising, it's hard to imagine they were still turning a net profit.