HP to sell one more batch of $99 TouchPad tablets on EBay
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The HP TouchPad isn’t dead yet. While Chief Executive Meg Whitman and the top brass at Hewlett-Packard Co. decide what to do with WebOS, the tech giant is reportedly set to sell one last batch of TouchPads at the fire-sale price of $99 on EBay.
According to a company memo leaked to the websites TechCrunch and SlickDeals, HP is planning to release an unspecified number of TouchPads to the HP EBay store at the sub-$100 price.
The last time HP marked its lone consumer-minded tablet down to $99, the company did so in an effort to unload the slow-selling slates after Whitman’s predecessor, Leo Apotheker, decided to abandon WebOS and WebOS devices such as the TouchPad and the Pre smartphones.
That price slash, which happened in August, resulted in HP selling hundreds of thousands of TouchPads and sellouts at retailers across the U.S. and Canada.
Officals at HP were unavailable for comment Wednesday night on the reported EBay sale.
The TouchPads that will reportedly hit EBay will all be refurbished units and they’ll hit the online retail and auction website at 6 p.m. Dec. 11. A TouchPad with 16 gigabytes of built-in storage will sell for $99, and those with 32 gigabytes of storage will be available at $149, the reports said.
HP employees will have a chance to buy the refurbished TouchPads on EBay -- and not on HP’s own online stores or anywhere else -- before the sale goes live to the public, TechCrunch said.
‘In an effort to give HP employees first chance at a very limited supply of refurbished TouchPads, there will be a short delay between when the product is posted live for sale on EBay and when the general public is notified of the sale,’ the memo reportedly said.
HP will also be selling ‘an optional three-piece accessory bundle with a case, charging dock and wireless keyboard for $79.
TouchPads will be limited to two per EBay user ‘sold on a first come, first served basis,’ the reports said.
So, who’s excited about possibly buying a tablet with probably little or no app or manufacturer support?
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+