Locating a purchasable TouchPad
August 23, 2011 9:45 AM Subscribe
Any ideas for obtaining an HP TouchPad? I've been incommunicado since the beginning of last week and I missed HP's "fire sale"... What saith the Hivemind: still possible through some relatively unknown channel or fuggedaboudit?
Your best bet may be to dig through and ferret something out of this SlickDeals thread. Every once in a while there is still one that pops up, even though they are getting much fewer and fewer.
posted by deezil at 9:57 AM on August 23, 2011
posted by deezil at 9:57 AM on August 23, 2011
holgate: "Or forget about it for a month and see what the market's like on eBay once people recover from bargain fever."
This. Once mania of "It's only $99!!!!" gives way to "It's not even close to an iPad", people will be unloading them.
posted by mkultra at 10:10 AM on August 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
This. Once mania of "It's only $99!!!!" gives way to "It's not even close to an iPad", people will be unloading them.
posted by mkultra at 10:10 AM on August 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Well, the idea is that geeks are picking them up and will install android on them soon. The specs aren't bad. If all goes well and someone releases a Honeycomb ROM you can have a nice little tablet for $99.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:20 AM on August 23, 2011
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:20 AM on August 23, 2011
Follow @BrynaAtHP on Twitter. When the HP store posts the remaining inventory she'll let you know.
posted by IanMorr at 11:04 AM on August 23, 2011
posted by IanMorr at 11:04 AM on August 23, 2011
That poor woman. It's just bedlam.
posted by disillusioned at 11:09 AM on August 23, 2011
posted by disillusioned at 11:09 AM on August 23, 2011
Business distributors might have some, as they're a different SKU as the retail models but functionally identical.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:02 PM on August 23, 2011
posted by blue_beetle at 12:02 PM on August 23, 2011
I've got the impression that most people buying them are fine with WebOS, they're not all being bought by optimistic Android enthusiasts. They're not iPads but they're not bad devices either, and some people actually prefer WebOS to Android.
Amazon in the UK dropped the price to £89 last night at midnight, and they'd sold out a few minutes later. I managed to order one but there's still no delivery date, which makes me wonder what the actual supply is like...
***Unsubstantiated Friend-of-a-Friend Rumour***
I've heard that retail stock in the UK is being bought up from distributors and large retailers in bulk by businesses, such as 500+ units all at once for internal use in a company. If that's true in the UK I'd expect the same in the USA. Less might be reaching retail than originally expected. So it might be tricky to get hold of one.
posted by BinaryApe at 1:07 PM on August 23, 2011
Amazon in the UK dropped the price to £89 last night at midnight, and they'd sold out a few minutes later. I managed to order one but there's still no delivery date, which makes me wonder what the actual supply is like...
***Unsubstantiated Friend-of-a-Friend Rumour***
I've heard that retail stock in the UK is being bought up from distributors and large retailers in bulk by businesses, such as 500+ units all at once for internal use in a company. If that's true in the UK I'd expect the same in the USA. Less might be reaching retail than originally expected. So it might be tricky to get hold of one.
posted by BinaryApe at 1:07 PM on August 23, 2011
Response by poster: Yikes - this all sounds like a lot of work... I'm allergic to work!
Thanks for the info, everyone, but I think you've actually convinced me not to bother. I really only wanted it for the not-sure-its-even-still-available Box.net deal (apparently, they came with a sign up for 50GBs of Box.net storage for free; I couldn't care less about the tablet itself, I wanted the free storage...).
Oh yeah: if you know anyone that gone one, this Box.net thing was apparently kind of under the radar. You have to sign up from a Touchpad, but once you do that, it's a normal Box.net account - and 50GBs of free cloud storage is pretty good.
posted by OneMonkeysUncle at 2:16 PM on August 23, 2011
Thanks for the info, everyone, but I think you've actually convinced me not to bother. I really only wanted it for the not-sure-its-even-still-available Box.net deal (apparently, they came with a sign up for 50GBs of Box.net storage for free; I couldn't care less about the tablet itself, I wanted the free storage...).
Oh yeah: if you know anyone that gone one, this Box.net thing was apparently kind of under the radar. You have to sign up from a Touchpad, but once you do that, it's a normal Box.net account - and 50GBs of free cloud storage is pretty good.
posted by OneMonkeysUncle at 2:16 PM on August 23, 2011
If you just want Box.net, I'd bet one of the bargain hunters would be willing to sweeten their own deal by selling you their free account. Put an ad up on Craiglist and offer someone some dough. I'd think that would be easier than actually getting a TouchPad at this point.
posted by MegoSteve at 3:26 PM on August 23, 2011
posted by MegoSteve at 3:26 PM on August 23, 2011
I watched it all unfold on fatwallet, people going nuts over these things, buying fistfuls of them. I'm with the person upthread who thinks that once people stop the frantic thoughtless rushing and end up with 16 of them, you'll likely be able to buy one inexpensively on fleabay or cralglist.
posted by dancestoblue at 2:49 AM on August 24, 2011
posted by dancestoblue at 2:49 AM on August 24, 2011
Turns out I was right, Amazon's supply for the £89 Touchpads wasn't actually available, they've just cancelled my order:
"Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer this item for sale. Our supplier has informed us that this item has been discontinued and is no longer available."
So even ordering one isn't enough to get one.
posted by BinaryApe at 7:03 AM on August 24, 2011
"Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer this item for sale. Our supplier has informed us that this item has been discontinued and is no longer available."
So even ordering one isn't enough to get one.
posted by BinaryApe at 7:03 AM on August 24, 2011
It's difficult at best. As BinaryApe noted, it's not enough to order. There are countless stories of people actually being charged and orders still being cancelled. There are countless stories of confusion and/or deception at retail stores too. It's difficult to tell how many are left in distribution channels, waiting for delivery back to HP or out to retailers and online stores.
It was a lot of work when the initial firesale started, and not much less now. Meanwhile there are a lot of people profiteering on eBay and Craigslist.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:19 PM on August 25, 2011
It was a lot of work when the initial firesale started, and not much less now. Meanwhile there are a lot of people profiteering on eBay and Craigslist.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:19 PM on August 25, 2011
Also PreCentral is another place where information has been shared on purchasing Touchpads, and more importantly, what to do with them.
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:20 PM on August 25, 2011
posted by ZeusHumms at 5:20 PM on August 25, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by holgate at 9:52 AM on August 23, 2011