[Rumor] HP May Re-Continue The TouchPad - Current Orders Being Cancelled

[dgstorm]

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Some of our tipsters over at HPTouchpadForums.net may have just broken an intriguing "good news, bad news" story. According to a couple of sources, HP is cancelling the current HP TouchPad orders that haven't shipped yet. That's the bad news. The good news is that the reason they are cancelling it is because they are going to retract their initial discontinuation of the product line, and re-continue it (plus they are completely out of stock as well).

In some ways this isn't that great, because the opportunity to get a decent tablet for the low-low price of $99 dollars is slipping away; however, it is not too bad. Now, after seeing the relative success of the product with folks that either want a really cheap tablet, or folks that want to put Android on it, HP wants to revive it from the dead. Who knows... they may consider working out a licensing deal to get Android on it from Google. Of course, that is pure speculation at this point. Share your thoughts in the forums!

Don't forget to come to HPTouchPadForums.net for all your HP TouchPad news and information!

Source: HPTouchpadforums.net, (1) & (2)

 

[Trusstopher]

Ha! If this is true then I laugh at those people who bought a $500 piece of hardware for $99 because it was not going to be supported any more and the battery was not replaceable and they were just a lost cause! And if they do go back into production at near the space price point, I'm especially going to laugh at those people who bought them in bulk at $99 a pop and will be able to turn a couple hundred dollars a pop on those "paper weights" when the values jumps back up. Jokes on all of... wait...

 

[kptphalkon]

I heard about this and was tempted to grab one. My intention would have been to use it for development and jump into learning how android works to port it for the hardware, but come on for 99 bucks? Who wouldn't want to try lol

 

[jseah]

In a way, it kinda makes sense. If HP discontinues production this early, I'm sure they probably would have to take a huge financial hit for cancelling their parts and production contracts early. By continuing production to fulfill those contracts, they at least won't be out any money (or at least out less money if the $99 closeout pricing is less than their actual costs).

Although I don't see it (production) continuing past what they had originally contracted their suppliers and manufacturing for. It wouldn't make sense since HP made the strategic decision to get out of the consumer electronics business to focus solely on corporate hardware (servers, etc.). By continuing to produce and support the Touchpad, that would curtail, or delay, their plan.

 

[i can read]

This is what i was emailed about my order for one from Digi circuits "We have spoken to our distributor and was just informed that HP is retracting it's initial announcement in regards to discounting the HP Touch-pad, which was the reason for the massive price drop. HP has informed our distributor that they will continue to manufacture the HP touch-pad in the future, but they don't have none in stock, and they don't expect to have anymore in production until Oct 2011. Because of this, all orders for the HP Touch-pad will be canceled."

 

[Immolate]

Ha! If this is true then I laugh at those people who bought a $500 piece of hardware for $99 because it was not going to be supported any more and the battery was not replaceable and they were just a lost cause! And if they do go back into production at near the space price point, I'm especially going to laugh at those people who bought them in bulk at $99 a pop and will be able to turn a couple hundred dollars a pop on those "paper weights" when the values jumps back up. Jokes on all of... wait...

Not sure I'm getting your point. People who got one at $99 or a bunch of them at $99 are better off if HP continues production. The bad news is for those of us who have been waiting for HP to ship, assuming any of this is more than a goofy rumor. If there's one thing we've learned in the last week from this debacle is that "heard it from a friend who" is almost certain to turn out to be complete crap.

 

[Trusstopher]

Not sure I'm getting your point. People who got one at $99 or a bunch of them at $99 are better off if HP continues production. The bad news is for those of us who have been waiting for HP to ship, assuming any of this is more than a goofy rumor. If there's one thing we've learned in the last week from this debacle is that "heard it from a friend who" is almost certain to turn out to be complete crap.

Hence the very end, "Jokes on all of...wait..." It was excessive sarcasm mostly because of the last Facebook post by Lee-anne James up there...

 

[Malvado]

This is what i was emailed about my order for one from Digi circuits "We have spoken to our distributor and was just informed that HP is retracting it's initial announcement in regards to discounting the HP Touch-pad, which was the reason for the massive price drop. HP has informed our distributor that they will continue to manufacture the HP touch-pad in the future, but they don't have none in stock, and they don't expect to have anymore in production until Oct 2011. Because of this, all orders for the HP Touch-pad will be canceled."

Post a pic of the email otherwise I call BS

Sent from my DROID 3 directly to YOU!

 

[Xerrus]

Post a pic of the email otherwise I call BS

Sent from my DROID 3 directly to YOU!

Agreed! "Don't have none" isn't a sentence a professional would use...
sent from my Droid Charge

 

[DesktopDevin]

HP would really be stupid to start production back up on these.

Best Buy was getting ready to return almost 200,000 units because nobody would buy them at the price point it was being sold at.

The only reason they sold out was because of the fire sale on them, to return to production then go back to the old price point that nobody was buying at is just purely idiotic.

Plus I hated those stupid commercials especially the Russell Brand one. Thank god it's finally off the air.

 

[jseah]

HP would really be stupid to start production back up on these.

Best Buy was getting ready to return almost 200,000 units because nobody would buy them at the price point it was being sold at.

The only reason they sold out was because of the fire sale on them, to return to production then go back to the old price point that nobody was buying at is just purely idiotic.

Plus I hated those stupid commercials especially the Russell Brand one. Thank god it's finally off the air.

According to the reports, Best Buy had ordered 270,000 from HP, but in the few months the Touchpad was available, sold less than 25,000. So that means that Best Buy had almost 250,000 units sitting in the warehouse and wanted to return them to HP. Regardless of the firesale price, I find it hard to believe that Best Buy was able to sell all remaining units in the few hours time they still showed "in stock" on Saturday.

I seriously doubt that HP, if they were to restart production on it, would raise the price back up to $400 again. That would be madness. It is pretty evident to HP that at $400 a unit, it isn't selling, while they can't keep them in stock for $100 a unit. So if they were to start making Touchpads again, if they aren't selling them at $100 a unit, the pricing would be much closer to the $100 a unit price than the old $400 a unit price.

 

[Chizzele]

If they will start production again it will be just to use all their inventory of parts as they are going out of hardware manufacturing all together. i would guess that the price point for the new batch if any would not be more than $149 for 16 gb and $199 for the 32gb... just my 2 cents..

 

[loki993]

So 2 supposed emails from people on the touchpad forum, with nothing at all to back it up and some random person posts it on FB and we believe this? How does it make any sense for HP to do that? Plus I think if all orders in fact were being cancelled, we would have heard about it from a lot more then just 2 people considering how fast they were selling last week.

 

[pizza3]

Confusion

I think there is a lot of confusion everywhere. And by "everywhere" I don't mean every point in the universe but in a lot of places. I am speaking as one who ran out Saturday the 20th to several stores only to be disappointed. I tried HP directly and they were "Out of stock" on Saturday but they said to "check back soon". I happened to check back at 4 am on Sunday and voila! they were not "Out of stock". Which means they received "stock" sometime between Sat afternoon and 4 am Sunday. After much difficulty I was able to order one. Since that time on the 21st to now Sun, the 28th my status has not changed at the HP site. I know my Am Exp card was charged on the 21st. At this point I may get it on the 31st as indicated on the site, I may get it sometime in September, or I may not get it at all. The BB store that had none on Saturday the 20th was selling them I later found out on that next Sunday. The manager at Office Depot told me he had 6 when the store opened but there was a line of people . He said it puzzled him because he was unaware of the drastic price drop until they made him look it up. When I called HP and finally got through the voice said there was a lot of confusion and that I may receive my toy even before it is marked "shipped" on the website. He didn't know for sure. I can see why HP is doing so poorly. They can't market and they can't manage. They could have sold just as many at $200. with a lot less chaos and confusion. That's my 3 cents.

 

[sampsonX2]

OK I get it now, heres what happened... HP hated the results of webOS, and regretted making their bets on the wrong horse (webOS instead of android) HP isnt stupid, they know this is the next big wave of computer technology and they missed the smartphone race completely (kicking themselves). Now how do we (hp) dump webOS and get to use a FREE developed android port for our existing hardware without having to change any of the hardware except for what we flash to the tablet at the factory..... create a furvor, whip the android dev comunity into a frenzy and have them get a build out to us, we'll even ship out some "accidental experiment units from the qualcom lab with software pre loaded and hopefully some of them will get leaked. then we use that build to load on our tablets. If Cyanogen mod makes it first they could even get a licensing deal from HP. Imagine Best buy advertising "NEW HP Touchpads for $150 with Android by CyanogenMOD7 preinstalled!" This would make Ipads look like last years overpriced yuppie tabs and people would flock to best buy for xmas tablets for everyone, YAY!!!