Best Buy, the electronics retailer, cut the price of the TouchPad to $99 in an
attempt to clear its stock. Best Buy was last week reported to have more
than 200,000 of the tablets. The low price brought queues outside its stores
and, according to one staff employee, a
“stampede” from customers hoping to land a bargain.
HP's decision to discontinue its TouchPad product, Best Buy will
now provide clearance pricing for all TouchPad 16GB and 32GB models
regardless of previously advertised prices or promotions," Best Buy
said. The company said that anyone who had bought a TouchPad after June 19
would be entitled to a refund.
Though Amazon.com has not discounted the TouchPad, the device still went to
the top of Amazon’s bestselling electronics chart. The HP tablet took the
top two places in the chart, ahead of Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader, which is
usually a fixture at number one.
Amazon Android tablet to cost 'hundreds less' than iPad
TouchPad suggests consumers ready for cheap tablets
HP's discontinued TouchPad triggered a stampede of customer interest for the $99 tablet, Garett Sloane of the NY Post said "the market is hungry for tablets outside of the Apple's iPad - if the price is right."
following in the footsteps of the firm's successful Kindle e-reader and the Android tablets would be a natural extension of the firm's already-launched Amazon App Store.
tantalising
take on the all-conquering iPad head on.
Amazon may also sell the device at a loss, as it does the Kindle e-reader, recouping costs through selling applications, books and services.
with the Wi-Fi only Kindle already retailing at $139.
$200 full-featured Android tablet with Amazon's marketing muscle behind it may well give Apple the competition it has so far not had to endure.