HP Cuts TouchPad Price Sharply

Are you looking to buy a tablet computer not called iPad 2?

Then here's good news you might want to read about.

Hewlett Packard has decided to significantly cut the price of its TouchPad tablet that launched just a month ago.

HP is now offering an instant rebate of $100 on its homepage. Rebates are available for both the 16GB and 32GB models. Now the TouchPad tablets will be available for $400 and $500, respectively.

The tablet was introduced after HP's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm and its WebOS platform in 2010.

HP wanted the operating system software to be incorporated into all the company's mobile devices and applications.

However, the TouchPad was faulted for weak design, low performance and very few apps. Even its multitasking and resizable keyboard with numbers were not enough for users.

Stephen DeWitt, head of HPs' new WebOS business unit also said one of the reasons for the discounts for the HP tablet is to build a TouchPad user base of sufficient size to make WebOS an attractive target for developers.

He also said there is speculation that a slow summer technology buying season with the availability of many other lower priced tablets from competitors, has pushed HP to put the TouchPad on sale.

However, it is very unlikely that HP will pursue further discounts as the cost for manufacturing the device, according to an analysis by IHS supply, which say the total Bill of Materials (BOM) for the 32-GB HP HTouchpad is $318.15. The BOM price for the 16GB model is $296.15. The prices include components, manufacturing costs, and packaging costs, according to the analysis.