Mark Bridge writes:
This weekend, you could have picked up a HP TouchPad webOS tablet for $99. Both the HP USA online store and Best Buy in Canada were selling the obsolescent devices at a substantial discount.
Yet over here in the UK, we’ve seen nothing except a prize draw from The Carphone Warehouse and a less-than-£90 discount from Amazon. And I don’t expect anything much better in the short-term.
Price promises, where retailers offer a refund or credit when a reduced-price product is spotted, will probably keep TouchPad prices high (or stock levels low) for the next few weeks. Besides, retailers still need to make a profit on their TouchPad stocks - and these certainly weren’t bought at a particularly low price.
Personally, I’d head straight for my nearest Best Buy or Carphone Warehouse if the price fell below £100. Even though there aren’t many apps... and those few apps probably won’t be supported in the future unless webOS is picked up by someone else... and there may not be any more apps... I’d happily pick one up. But I don’t think that’ll be happening for a month or so - if at all.
Update: Okay, let’s face it, I got this completely wrong. Within hours of writing the article, Best Buy UK had dropped its prices to £89 for the 16GB model and £115 for 32GB. Both now showing as out of stock. Still, on the positive side, it’s cheaper than I was expecting!
| We talked about HP’s webOS at Mobile World Congress in February this year. Click here to listen on our website (the webOS conversation is towards the end of the podcast), find us on iTunes or download the MP3 file. |