Best Buy May Slash HP TouchPad Prices

High-grade Buy may offer heavily discounted Hewlett-Packard TouchPads in the coming weeks because the big box retailer is reported to be having a vexed time unloading its stock of WebOS tablets. Best Buy has reportedly sold sporty 25,000 TouchPads after ordering 270,000 to sell in its big box stores across the United States. Making matters worse, Best Buy isn't overconfident it can sell through its stock and wants HP to study back the retail merchant's TouchPad inventory, according to AllThingsD.

That's unfavorable news for H.P., but information technology also means the computer producer may try to strike a deal to keep the TouchPad on Best Buy's shelves. That could mean we'll see some Horsepower laptop computer/tablet bundle deals as the back-to-schooltime buying season revs up, AllThingsD says.

Bad reviews

H.P.'s first raid tablets (also known as the iPad market) has been met with lackluster success. Most reviewers dinged the WebOS tablet for its slow responsiveness, buggy software and distributed app catalog. PCWorld gave the TouchPad 2.5 out of 5 stars, mainly complaining about the device's slow performance. Things didn't get much better in early August after HP discharged its showtime senior firmware update for the TouchPad. "Our testing institute that it [the TouchPad microcode update] doesn't do much to improve upon the TouchPad's crappy performance," PCWorld's Genus Melissa J. Perenson said.

TouchPad price plump

Beyond the fearful reviews, the TouchPad has conventional a string of monetary value cuts beginning just weeks afterwards the device's July 1 found date. By July 30, HP knocked $50 off the toll of some TouchPad models, originally set to mirror the iPad's pricing. HP's cut pulled TouchPad prices down to $449 (16GB) and $549 (32GB). By early August, smart shoppers could find TouchPads for most $100 cheaper.Then last Thursday, HP permanently slashed the TouchPad's price tags to $399 and $499 respectively.

Given how quickly the TouchPad's prices have fallen, it's a pretty good stake that HP is having a hard clip convincing tablet buyers to forgo the iPad for H.P.'s WebOS slate. And so the rumors about Best Buy's dissatisfaction sound plausible, and we should experience a break idea of what's going on with the TouchPad in the coming days.

HP faces the music

On Thursday, HP will release its first quarterly salary report since the TouchPad launched, an event that May shed some light along sales figures for the device. And AllThingsD says an HP executive has been dispatched to Unsurpassed Buy's Minneapolis headquarters to discuss the TouchPad dilemma. It's indistinct what whitethorn come of that meeting, but there could be some real TouchPad deals headed your way.

The question is will consumers be willing to shell outgoing money for a TouchPad at this point, disregarding what the price?

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