HP TouchPad Heads Amazon Bestseller List in US, Price Drops in UK too

In the aftermath of HP’s shocking announcement of pulling the plug on webOS device development, HP started selling the 16GB HP TouchPad WiFi for a mere $99 and the 32GB version for $150. Retailers such as Best Buy, Staples, Walmart and Office Depot followed suit with the devicesselling like hot cakes off store shelves. The sale ended this weekend with at least Best Buy exhausting its HP TouchPad inventory.

Amazon did not join the sale and still has the 16GB and 32GB editions of HP TouchPad available for $399 and $495.99. Is it expecting the tide to change? HP TouchPad has made it into the top 100 bestselling electronic gadgets at Amazon though because of the prices set by third party resellers on Amazon. Prices vary as there are quite a lot of third party sellers, but if you’re fortunate enough, you can pick one up in the range from $200 for the 16GB WiFi TouchPad or $280 for the 32GB model. HP TouchPad has even beaten Kindle reader for the top spot in the list. While it does not beat the $99 (16GB) and $150 (32GB) price tags, it is still one good deal.

Drop in prices have turned HP TouchPad into a hot commodity. With Android developers getting to work on an Android port for the device, I guess a $100 tablet from HP with the potential to run Honeycomb is a good bet.

The excitement is catching on in UK too with retailers there also dropping prices to £89 ($146) for the 16GB HP TouchPad and £115 ($189) for the 32GB one. Dixons is offering the tabs for this price and others will follow soon I guess. Retailers want to get rid of HP TouchPads in a hurry and there doesn’t seem to be a dearth of takers for that price.

If the fire sale of HP TouchPad is infuriating you because you were an unfortunate early adopter of the webOS tablet, HP isn’t leaving you to your woes. It is offering refunds or reimbursement if you bought the tablet from their website. Not sure whether retailers will be as generous though Best Buy is offering to refund the price difference. HP is asking its retail partners to honor the refunds that they themselves are offering. Let’s see how that goes.

How ironic! HP finally has the sale numbers it wanted for HP TouchPad but at what cost. Hopefully, all HP TouchPad customers will get their refunds. That’s the least HP can do after the huge letdown.

[via engadget, uberphones]