When HP killed its TouchPad, dropping the price to $99, the PC maker set off a firestorm of interest in the tablet that nobody previously wanted. Now HP said it will restart manufacturing for a limited time to meet what it says is “unfulfilled demand.”
Will this last production run be enough to satisfy all those wanting a $99 tablet? There’s no certain answer. HP says it will really stop making the TouchPad by the fourth quarter, which ends October 31, a month from today.
Before you get too excited, the decision doesn’t come with hard facts, such as how much they’ll cost, when they’ll be available, or whether there will be enough to go around. All of this prompted Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu to predict there will plenty of one product: mass confusion.
HP “did a lot of these moves in haste,” he notes. Just days after introducing the TouchPad, HP cut the price. Less than two weeks after killing the tablet, the company announces a another limited run. Yeah, that defines as hasty.
However many TouchPads are being made for this last hurrah, HP is going to take a bath. The device reportedly costs $300 to make, with HP selling between 200,000 and 300,000 at discount prices, resulting in a cost of $100 million for the PC maker, according to reports.
Will this last production run be enough to satisfy all those wanting a $99 tablet? There’s no certain answer. HP says it will really stop making the TouchPad by the fourth quarter, which ends October 31, a month from today.
