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HP The Almighty Buck News Technology

HP TouchPad Go: $99? 146

Posted by samzenpus from the on-the-cheap dept.
redletterdave writes "The HP TouchPad Go, which is a smaller version of the company's signature TouchPad, may go on sale for $99 like its predecessor. The tablet features a 1023 x 768 resolution display, runs on webOS, and also has a removable cover with soft-touch coating to minimize fingerprints on the 7-inch screen. HP's new tablet also comes with a removable battery, 32GB of storage, a 3G radio, a five-megapixel camera and LED flash. HP designed the TouchPad Go around the same time as the larger model, but it failed to reach production stages when the company decided to kill off all devices running on the doomed webOS. If the tablet indeed sells for $99, it would be the cheapest tablet in the world besides the Aakash tablet, which was released by the Indian government for $35."
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HP TouchPad Go: $99? More

HP TouchPad Go: $99?

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  • Sounds good to me (Score:3)

    by Nursie ( 632944 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:13PM (#38522072)

    I'm still annoyed I missed the fire sale on the 'full size' model.

    • Re:Sounds good to me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) * on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:29PM (#38522206)

      I missed the first fire sale, and that's fine because I didn't know about it. I'm pissed off about the Ebay sale, though, because I clicked "Buy it Now" the exact second the sale started (and kept trying for half an hour) and still didn't get a damn thing!

      • My order was canceled at the first fire sale (I was a little late learning about it though). On the eBay sale, I actually made it all the way through the PayPal purchasing, only to have the order cancelled when I returned back to eBay.

        • It's called capitalism, here's how it works:

          1) download the Android 4.0 ICS source code from http://source.android.com/ [android.com]

          2) integrate any missing driver from the WebOS Linux kernel to the Android Linux kernel;

          3) compile & install;

          4) sell the damn thing at $250-300;

          5) profit!!!

          You're welcome.

    • I, too, missed the first sale... Only because I didn't have $100 at the time.

      When it came back around with the refurbished models on eBay I was surprised (read: pissed) to find that they did not ship to Canada.

    • Don't be - same res on 7" gives you the same amount of "screen area" in a package that should fit in a decent sized jacket pocket.

  • I'd get it (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I have one of the firesale Touchpads. I think it is a great product. I mean how many Apple or Android tablets let you run vanilla debian? I'd get the Go in a heartbeat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ryanov ( 193048 )

      I have one but the plastic has cracked in a couple of places and I'm pretty careful. I like it otherwise.

    • I have one of the firesale Touchpads. I think it is a great product. I mean how many Apple or Android tablets let you run vanilla debian? I'd get the Go in a heartbeat.

      "Let you" is a little vague. It's more like webOS "doesn't stop you" from doing it, like iOS or Android would. Either way, it's not very simple. And it's not like webOS devices come with an "Install Other OS" option like the PS3. Oh wait...

      • Android nor iOS do not -and could not- prevent you from running any other operating system.
        It's the darn bootloaders, closed-source drivers, dreadful reverse-engineering and lack of schemata that's causing the issues with running other OS

        All non-Windows x86-tablets (like the Wetab) have official or unofficial methods (e.g. writing 'magic bytes' at the beginning of a USB stick) to get them to boot from it and run any desired OS.

    • Re:I'd get it (Score:4, Informative)

      by wolrahnaes ( 632574 ) <sean AT seanharlow DOT info> on Thursday December 29, 2011 @10:36AM (#38526282) Homepage Journal

      My Evo 4G running Debian would like a word with you. Most rooted Android devices can install a Debian or Debian-derived (like Ubuntu) distro with ease following the exact same method as I used, and I assume there's probably a similar option for other distros as long as there's support for the appropriate processor for your device (usually ARM). I haven't tried, but I'll bet I could get it running the exact same way on my iPhone 3G that dual boots with Android 2.3.

  • Im in !! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:15PM (#38522090) Homepage Journal
    Such a good price/performance tablet was LONG overdue.

    i wasnt gonna buy a tablet, but, i can buy this without any considerations that it will be a waste.

    • Re:Im in !! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @10:06PM (#38522436)

      Such a good price/performance tablet was LONG overdue.

      Yeah it's amazing what a company can do when it doesn't factor in what it costs to manufacture a product but is simply trying to clear out inventory.

      But if you're implying this would be a sustainable business model - you're delusional.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @11:40PM (#38522898)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re:Im in !! (Score:4, Insightful)

          by froggymana ( 1896008 ) on Thursday December 29, 2011 @01:22AM (#38523290)

          I think the problem is everyone is dreaming of iMoney and thus making them overpowered and thus expensive. I mean think about it, what does the typical consumer do with a pad? They check their email, play Angry birds, and watch video. Now the video could be easily taken care of with a broadcom chip which is cheap, especially when you are buying in bulk, I doubt Angry birds is that big of a CPU hog, and email and webpages aren't gonna need much if you disallow flash support.

          So I don't see why someone couldn't make a really nice tablet in the $180-$200 price range and make around $10-$15 a unit on them. A dualcore ARM CPU in the 1GHz range isn't that high and resistive will work fine for the screen as long as the OS is tweaked for it instead of just using a vanilla OS unoptimized for the platform like many are doing with android now. So while $100 might not be doable I don't see why sub $200 while still doing the tasks folks want a tablet for couldn't be achieved.

          I believe there is something like this already. It's called the Amazon Kindle. Oh, and by the way it's most likely sold at loss. [ibtimes.com]

          • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

            by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday December 29, 2011 @02:05AM (#38523468)
            Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dj245 ( 732906 )
          The answer to your question is the Ainol (pronounced "eye-nol") Novo 7 Advanced [merimobiles.com], which can run Ice Cream Sandwich.

          I'm not a shill for Merimobiles but they seem to have the cheapest price. I'll buy one as soon as they get back in stock.
        • Take a look at the 'China Tablets'. They more or less provide what you'd expect of them (and can usually play videos and Angry birds too) while sometimes even featuring HDMI ports for external television sets for a very affordable price.
          However you'd have to live with resistive displays (not on all models), low-powered CPU's, low-resolution LCD panels, not-too-great battery life (3-6 hours) and sometimes unusable audio outputs and some devices tend to break down after a few weeks (check forums for issues i

  • Misleading title/summary (Score:5, Informative)

    by ethan961 ( 1895082 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:16PM (#38522102)
    Only a handful of these are known to exist and as far as anyone knows they never went past pre-production models. There is no warehouse full of them to get rid of in the first place, which is what the original HP Touchpad sale was about. HP's also not about to start making them, especially not to sell at a loss.

    • Re:Misleading title/summary (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ethan961 ( 1895082 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:22PM (#38522138)
      That said, having one of the original TouchPads myself, I love the Touchstone charging and WebOS really is beautiful for a tablet. I would definitely purchase a Go if I could, since it's the same thing in a smaller package that would be nicer for tossing in my backpack.

    • Yes, but as with the TouchPad, they could have issues with parts and vendors, in which they are trying to go with what results in the least loss. (For example, contract cancellation fees with their suppliers)

    • Look, other people get to dream about Newt Gingrich getting the Republican nomination for President. Others fantasize about about Tom Cruise spiriting them away in a DC-9.

      What's so wrong with us drooling over the possibility of a $99 touchpad? As these things go, it's pretty harmless.

      • The problem isn't with drooling (or you personally in any way) - the problem is with every single tablet that shows up online gets 9,000 comments of the variety "WTF? $300+ for a tablet? HP sold theirs for only $99, do they think we're crazy?" or "Meh, it's not a $99 HP Touchpad, not interested"... If you don't believe me, watch Woot and similar sites any time a tablet shows up...

      • Others fantasize about about Tom Cruise spiriting them away in a DC-9.

        Sounds like a nightmare to me: the DC-9 was never among my favorite airplanes, and the newest of them is almost 30 years old. From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

        The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.

        As for Tom Cruise... I'd fly in a DC-3 to avoid the dork.

    • 1023 x 768 resolution display. Right.

  • 1023? Not 1024? Cheapskates ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:18PM (#38522116)

    The sheer nerve.

  • Not the cheapest (Score:5, Informative)

    by Improv ( 2467 ) <pgunn01@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:19PM (#38522118) Homepage Journal

    There are plenty of very low-end chinese tablets that are under $99. They're typically terribly slow, but you can get them.

    • so the "one laptop per child" didn't have to be such drama queens, the $99 computer came into existence with no effort on their part. just stoke the cheap chinese tablets with educational wares and throw them at third world kids, just need to set up charging stations

      • OLPC is ruggedized, though, the Chinese tablets aren't.

        • The issue is with the cost of the OLPC. They could have taken some off-the-shelf reference design, maybe with a processor that didn't suck but anyway, and all they'd have had to do was make a case. Instead they went full-custom and drove up the price.

          • Also, when the OLPC project started, they actually had to go full custom to do what they wanted, IIRC - the closest to what they were doing was either more expensive or SIGNIFICANTLY slower.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Improv ( 2467 )

        You could do that, but the OLPCs still provide a much better learning environment, and the community around them has done a much better job at providing minority language support (or making it easy to roll one's own).

        • that "minority language support" is irrelevant, that work could have targeted any system. The softwares don't matter

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Improv ( 2467 )

            I suspect you haven't looked into how the OLPC foundation has done this enough, WRT the language.

            There was also value in the OLPC foundation getting the laptops to kids a lot earlier than now.

  • Non-story (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:22PM (#38522134)

    A story speculating that devices may or may not exist that HP may or may not sell at a price which might or might not be $99, without so much as a hint that there is evidence suggesting they ever actually *made* any production-level product beyond pre-release testing and evaluation units. Given the Touchpad Go's schedule probably wouldn't have had it in mass production at the time HP killed the product line, it seems unlikely that they would have gone forward with production, unless their supply chain already had them over a barrel (which was allegedly the cause of the second wave of firesale, the third being to flush out returns). The problem is any thinking right now is merely speculation.

    I'd probably take the plunge and get it if offered just for a WebOS device to play with (I have a few Palm Pres, but it's hard to justify playing with them when my Android phone has much better hardware in every way (bigger, higher resolution screen, faster processors, 4 times the ram, a camera that actually focuses, etc) and actually has support for things like Netflix.

  • Screw Standard Resolutions (Score:5, Funny)

    by stilldead ( 233429 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:27PM (#38522172)

    1023x768??? This a really good plan.

  • Linkbait headline on TFA (Score:5, Informative)

    by Jay L ( 74152 ) <jay+slash AT jay DOT fm> on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:28PM (#38522184) Homepage

    TL;DR: "There was going to be a TouchPad Go, but it never got produced. Film at 11."

  • Article is trolling for page hits (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bushwuly ( 585191 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @09:33PM (#38522238)
    I'm typing this on a TouchPad now, and follow webOS news pretty regularly hoping for positive news. However, the original source that this article supposedly refers to (http://www.webosnation.com/review-hp-touchpad-go [webosnation.com]) specifically states that:

    ... the fact that this tablet will never see the light of day puts a rather large damper on the party.

    P.S. The only one of these ever sold was on eBay a month or so ago for over $700

    • And they paid tooooo much for it. If you have a little bit of patience, you're going to see more firesales for decent tablets that also hit the wall of reality-- and soon, IMHO.

  • I don't see why HP should not revive the TouchPad Go (renamed to TouchPad 2, the other one renamed to Touch Pad Classic). There's a market out there, and they can make money other than on the hardware; (licensed) peripherals, App Catalog sales, there's already a Kindle app, perhaps also introduce a Nook Reader app and get a percentage of sales through that from B&N. Wouldn't that be cool, Kindle and Nook on one device?

    Disclosure: I have a WiFi-only (= no GPS) TouchPad (32GB, $149) and use it as an e-rea

    • Re:$99 TouchPad 2 (Score:5, Informative)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @10:12PM (#38522466)

      I don't see why HP should not revive the TouchPad Go (renamed to TouchPad 2, the other one renamed to Touch Pad Classic). There's a market out there, and they can make money other than on the hardware; (licensed) peripherals, App Catalog sales, there's already a Kindle app, perhaps also introduce a Nook Reader app and get a percentage of sales through that from B&N. Wouldn't that be cool, Kindle and Nook on one device?

      Disclosure: I have a WiFi-only (= no GPS) TouchPad (32GB, $149) and use it as an e-reader about 75% of the time; unfortunately I have to convert everything to pdf as I haven't taken the time yet to use the alternate installer (for which I believe there is a proper reader that handles epub, etc.).

      Somehow you truly believe selling a tablet at a price point that's hundreds of dollars below the manufacturing cost is a sustainable business model. Tell me, how much have YOU spent on extra apps, peripherals, etc. for the TouchPad you own? And, if you've bought peripherals - do you believe they cost nothing to manufacture?

      I really don't get how some of you can be so disconnected from reality.

    • Can't you run the kindle app on the Nook Color already?

      Either way, it's missing the point. The color products are for watching movies and doing interactive stuff (and reading in the dark). If you're serious about the reading, you get the e-paper ones. Which, with B&N at least, complements your tablet nicely due to the inter-device page syncing.

    • they can make money other than on the hardware;

      hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

      no.

      The tech industry as we see it now proves you've got to put out good product first THEN make it cheap. Not make cheap hardware now THEN make it good product.

  • Looks like a "let's see if they'll jump again" trial balloon from HP . . .

    Though I have to admit that it's pretty good bait.
  • have any Slashdotters tried it? Is it good?

  • I'd buy one (Score:3)

    by kimvette ( 919543 ) on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @10:15PM (#38522488) Homepage Journal

    If it can run ICS or Honeycomb and has both WiFi and Bluetooth, I'll buy one even at $250. I want an Android tablet for one purpose: to run Torque via an ODB-II adapter.

  • 1023 pixels wide? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Were they afraid Apple would sue them for 1024?

  • Summary is crap. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28, 2011 @10:40PM (#38522632)

    1023, really? I'm betting it's 1024x768, but that's from the article -- worth a [sic] IMO, but I'll let it go.

    As the article says, "many wonder" if it will be firesaled for $99, but there's no new reason to suppose any significant stock exists; it remains the same baseless speculation it's been for months.

    And as for second-cheapest tablet, a dozen cheaper ones [dealextreme.com] beg to differ.

    I like the tablet and this is good news, but

  • Eken M009S can be had for ~55$ and available to anyone, list pricing.
    See pandawill.com

  • It might be the best tablet at that price point, but $80 Android tablets are becoming pretty common if you look in places like drug stores. I'm not saying I want one of the $80 tablets, but they certainly exist.
  • that's cheap?!maybe , but i do not really want it . http://www.jpzentai.com/ [jpzentai.com]

  • WebOS just doesn't want to go away yet (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wish HP would figure out a viable business model for these devices... These constant rumors only peak interest in these products and what could have been. If they sold for around $200-250, I'm sure more people would have bought them. The capability is also there to develop an BOOK/EBAY/AMAZON/ITUNEs style of market to bolster sales of these products...

  • Sounds good... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    But is it square? Apple's gonna sue them...

  • From quite many sources.

    Cheapest I have seen have been about $65, though I did pay $108(inclusive shipping) for mine to get capacitive screen, a 8gb internal storage, 1.5ghz processor model.

  • Most people agree that Amazon is either just breaking even selling the Amazon Fire, or perhaps selling it at a slight loss (at $200 USD).

    So it's obvious that even a 7" HP TouchPad Go, let alone a 10" model is being sold below cost at $200.

    Remember HP added feature that are not included in the TouchPad Go like:
    - higher resolution screen
    - GPS
    - twice the storage
    - twice the RAM
    - front and rear facing cameras (including flash)
    - better CPU (a TI OMAP 1GHz dual-core

  • My teenage niece got one for Christmas and her hands have been glued to it since. Although it lacks the GPS, GS and numerous Apps of the #1 tablet, it does most of what she wants: mail, browse, internet radio, video ...

  • I think the OP should have a look at the hundreds of tablets selling for under $99 and realize that this touchpad would be a good long ways away from being the cheapest tablet on the market. Maybe if you kick out all of the chinatabs, the cheapies sold at toysrus and so forth.

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