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.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
27 responses to “Missed Out On A $99 HP Touchpad? HP’s Making More… But Why?”
Umm…two months? I think September 31st will come first, this year…since it wasn’t a leap year ;)
Maybe cheaper to use up all those leftover parts and supplies than dumping them.
I think this may all be a show to try and get the tablet’s popularity up. After the fourth quarter I won’t be surprised if they start manufacturing them full-time again.
And I doubt they cost $300 to make. Corporations like HP are always going to make money off of it somehow, I think the initial $399 was because they thought that if Apple can get that much money for their iPad, HP can charge $100 and still get business.
A month from today is October 1st not 31st lol
Yup.
Take a bath on selling them cheap or take a bath on supplier contracts.
Yup.
Take a bath on selling them cheap or take a bath on supplier contracts.
Law of Supply and Demand. If your not going to make a profit at the market’s equilibrium point (~$399 ea), sale them at cost (~firesale prices) and exhaust the supplier’s contracts to keep from realizing an unaccepatable loss that would be difficult to explain when called to the carpet at the head shed.
It’s because they signed a contract to make 500000 tablets and only completed half the order. They now figure it will be cheaper just to produce the rest of the tablets rather than breaking the contract, getting sued, and having to pay the cost of making every tablet without the $100 return of selling them
It makes sense if they’re planning to license WebOS: sell the tablet at a loss until there is a critical mass of users to attract devs, then make it back from licensing fees.
It’s a good thing you put the same paragraph twice.
“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.”
How do “writers” like this get a job, they don’t proof read their articles? Yeah in a month it will be October 1 and yes you must have copy and pasted that statement twice! LOL
I think HP are trying to build a following and sell it on!
http://www.theonlycog.com/post…
there is no sept 31. not sure who’s sillier. the op or the one above
I can only assume that the reason they are making more is down to contracual obligations with manufacturers and suppliers. No company would make a product and sell it at a loss after it was discontinued.