HP TouchPad lives on after ‘clearance sale’

Today it was announced that Hewlett-Packard will make another limited run of their TouchPad tablet computer, marking a shocking turnaround for the previously beleaguered hardware giant.

This news comes in light of the TouchPad clearance sale, with HP having dropped the price to $100 and discontinued the product. While this was widely seen at the time as an admission of defeat for the TouchPad, with each unit being sold at a loss, it may turn out to have been a truly brilliant marketing strategy. With lukewarm reviews and the runaway success of Apple, the TouchPad sold modestly upon launch. However, being sold at outrageous value for money for a limited amount of time has created a buzz around the TouchPad; HP may be making a loss, but people are talking about them and buying their products.

It is rumored that HP will set prices at cost price (around $200) for the TouchPad in future, the hope being that they can bring in revenue through the app store and make their profits that way. In doing this, HP have been able to put themselves back at the heart of the tablet market, finding a mid-priced niche for people unwilling to pay Apple prices, whereas they had previously sought to compete at the higher end of the tablet market against Apple with an inferior product.

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