14 DAY TRIAL // The HP TouchPad continues to sell like warm bread, even though the retailer, from Europe, that actually put it up for order is a long way from the previous, super-low price point.
The story of the HP TouchPad is very ironic, one might say, especially considering that its official existence ended a while ago.
After just about six weeks of roaming the market, the HP TouchPad was scrapped along with every other webOS project by HP.
The decision was accompanied by the announcement that HP was giving up its PC business, despite being number one supplier in that area.
Unfavorable reactions aside, the fact remains that the HP TouchPad refused to go down, ironically because of HP itself.
In a bid to get rid of the item quickly, the company let the price plummet all the way down to $99 for the 16 GB version (and not much extra for the 32 GB one).
The reaction on the part of consumers was a sudden spike in interest, leading to swift sellouts which, apparently, have seen a repeat of performance.
Once stocks were depleted, HP said it would prepare a new, final batch, but that was only supposed to reach US stores.
As such, much surprise may have arisen when UK Retailer PC World posted it as available, not that the 16 GB version lasted.
Still, the 32 GB tablet is still listed, although the price of £249.99 ($398) is a far cry from the pittance of before.
Just how PC World got the shipment is unclear, considering that the final TouchPad batch was only supposed to fill outstanding US orders before going abroad, if that was even going to happen.
It is interesting that the webOS device is so popular even with this price, although the fact that Android was successfully ported onto it (and even got multitouch drivers) probably has something to do with it.