AfterDawn: News

HP employees to get first access to last batch of TouchPads

If you were hoping to get one of the last TouchPads at the fire sale price of $99.99 or $199.99, your chances just got a little smaller unless you are an HP employee.

After a HP announcement last month that they will discontinue the TouchPad, the initial production run sold out quickly at the highly discounted prices. Soon after, they announced plans to produce just 200,000 more in order to fulfill contracts with suppliers.



In an email recently leaked to TechCrunch, HP employees were told they will get exclusive access to the additional stock:

After a thorough review of options, I'm pleased to share that starting at 9:00am (Pacific Time) on Wednesday, September 28^th, HP employees in the United States will have one last chance to buy an HP TouchPad through the Employee Purchase Program on a first come first serve basis. Pricing will remain the same as it has been during the wind down process -- $99.99 for the 16GB TouchPad, $149.99 for the 32GB TouchPad...while limited supplies last.

Even for people who might not be interested in owning the tablet, those prices leave plenty of room for profit reselling them. The 16GB model, in particular, is selling for twice or more its original $99.99 price on eBay.

Although WebOS, the native operating system for the TouchPad, appears to be on life support, discount TouchPads have resulted in extensive interest in running Android on it. In particular, the developers of CyanogenMod appear close to a fully functional release for the TouchPad.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 19 Sep 2011 10:52

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• 5 comments

• llongtheD

  Wow, I thought they would have gave them first dibs on the last batch. You would have to have been the last man at a cubicle to not know about it wouldn't you? It's nice that they're taking care of their customers first. WAY TO GO HP!
  

  If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

  19.9.2011 23:25 #1

• KillerBug

  Eh...I ordered a pair of them the first time and my order got canceled; that kinda squashed my enthusiasm for the thing. I can wait a month or two of the $200 Amazon tablet with Android...with HP build quality, probably only about 1/2 of TouchPads will last over a year anyway...if I am buying a tablet I expect at least three years.
  

  
  

  20.9.2011 05:44 #2

• biglo30

  Originally posted by KillerBug: Eh...I ordered a pair of them the first time and my order got canceled; that kinda squashed my enthusiasm for the thing. I can wait a month or two of the $200 Amazon tablet with Android...with HP build quality, probably only about 1/2 of TouchPads will last over a year anyway...if I am buying a tablet I expect at least three years. Agreed, I was bidding on a touchpad but now I'm just waiting to see what amazon comes out with and hpefully its worth waiting.
  

  
  

  20.9.2011 09:46 #3

• hastypete

  They are also letting the employees purchase as many as they want. They have a no-resale policy, but I can't see what the guy who walked out with 10 is going to do with them. Oh, gifts. Yeeeeaaaaaa, that's it.

  22.9.2011 19:50 #4

• Gnawnivek

  Originally posted by KillerBug: Eh...I ordered a pair of them the first time and my order got canceled; that kinda squashed my enthusiasm for the thing. I can wait a month or two of the $200 Amazon tablet with Android...with HP build quality, probably only about 1/2 of TouchPads will last over a year anyway...if I am buying a tablet I expect at least three years. I was able to get one for $112 shipped (screw the eBay prices, freaking hate hoarders/scalpers, no business from me for sure). It's not a bad toy for $100 bucks. If I can get another one for $100, I will, but yeah, I'm also intrigued by Amazon's tablet...

  22.9.2011 21:43 #5