HP TouchPad Up for $300, $150 with a Laptop

BestBuy is no longer the best place to buy the HP TouchPad, not with TigerDirect selling it for half the price the former demand from customers.

Though the cost is the same as the one on BestBuy when purchased alongside a notebook, the webOS-loaded HP slate is much more affordable to those who want it alone.

We mentioned, back at the end of October, that BestBuy still had some leftover models ready to sell alongside HP notebooks.

The extra sum of money for such a bundle was $150 (110.38 Euro, according to today's exchange rates).

Meanwhile, it was possible to buy only the TouchPad, but then customers had to fork up $600 (441.53 Euro).

Obviously, few, if any, buyers went for the latter choice, especially after the TouchPad had gone through an episode when its price was of $99 (72.85).

TigerDirect didn't beat the first of these two offers, as it too is selling notebooks with a bundled TouchPad for an extra $150.

It does get the cup for the standalone offer, though, since it only wants $300.

Thus, its pricing scheme comes closer to a regular promotional offer than to a tactic meant to encourage sales of notebooks by strapping on a low-priced but valuable bonus.

Go here to see the 9.7-inch item in its full, albeit probably transient, glory (it has 32 GB of built-in flash storage, 1GB memory, capacitive touch and all expected connectivity and I/O).

As a reminder, TouchPad is the item HP once wished would be a third major player, alongside Apple's iPad and Android slates.

Right now, there are still questions as to just what will happen to the mobile operating system, but with all the staff shuffling, nothing will be done any time soon, even if the company does, in the end, choose to try again.