HP

If you're not impressed with the slew of Android tablets available now, and you don't want to wait until February to get your new iPad 3, then get in line for the Sunday, Dec. 11 eBay sale of $99 Hewlett-Packard TouchPads. It might be a quick sale because $99 seems to be the super-sweet spot for tablets.

Tablet computers are already dropping in price. The Internet was buzzing this week over the anticipated arrival of the $99 Novo7 tablet set to arrive soon for sale in the U.S. There are also $99 HP TouchPads that can be purchased from eBay. But if money is an issue and you want a tablet now, than either the Kindle Fire or the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet are excellent buys.

Now that HP has decided once again to sell their defunct TouchPad tablet for $99, what are you going to do with it? You need some apps. Even though HP has given up on the TouchPad and its operating system, there are still a core of developers who are very passionate about the system.

As the holiday shopping season gathers steam, there's good news for people who want HP's $99 TouchPad but earlier lost the chance to get one. The $99 tablet, which sold like hot cakes will reportedly hit stores this weekend.

As we cast our eyes over the year that was, the computer tablet market across the world strikes one as having been the sort of space most affected by a constant stream of products, with each one trying to outdo the other, in terms of innovation, design, components and performance. At the end of it all, however, if you've played the waiting game, hoping that 2012 will be an even better year, here is a brief rundown of what to expect...

According to a preliminary projection from the IHS iSuppli Display Materials & Systems Service, from information and analysis provider IHS (NYSE: IHS), Amazon's tablet grew past the 4.8 percent held by Samsung and will now be second only Apple's mammoth 65.6 percent.

In an IDC report on 'Top 10 system software prediction for 2012', the potential success of Windows 8 was given a poor evaluation by the global market research company.

Hewlett-Packard, who may have inadvertently jump-started widespread interest in tablet computers with a deep price discount in September, will again be selling their now discontinued TouchPad tablets for $99 on Sunday, Dec.11. When the TouchPad first came out, the price was $400, nearly as much as an iPad.

The HP TouchPad sale is being revived - for one day only - on HP's eBay store, which will offer heavily discounted $99 tablet computers during another round of the firesale.

With an expected price of $99, American consumers will soon get the chance to try out the Novo7, the first tablet computer to sun Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Get the full spec list here, learn where to look for Novo7s (now available only in China), and compare it another Apple iPad challenger, the ill-fated HP TouchPad.

Since launching in 2010, Apple's iPad has been the global leader in tablets. But since Amazon's first table, the all-new low-priced Kindle Fire came out in November Apple's dominance may be sagging. In a new analyst note, Shaw Wu of the brokerage firm Stern Agee sees iPad sales as a little light in the current quarter.

Last week, Apple's Siri for iPhone 4S ignited a firestorm when the personal assistant failed to locate local abortion clinics. But it's not the first time a big tech company like Apple or HP has launched a much-hyped product only to see a PR disaster take it down. Here are five more tech gaffes, from HP's racist webcam to Blackberry ignoring women's voices.

The two biggest computer giants continued their buying spree as Hewlett-Packard snapped up HiFlex while IBM said it will acquire Curam Software.

As Oracle, SAP and IBM snap up rivals in business analytics software, Information Builders will stay independent, founding CEO Gerald D. Cohen told International Business Times.

Shares of specialty software vendors like MicroStrategy and Qlik Technologies rose sharply early Monday as investors contemplate Oracle’s retaliation for SAP’s $3.4 billion bid for SuccessFactors.

Deutsche Bank continues to recommend investors to buy into Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and sell Hewlett-Packard, Co. (NYSE: HPQ), saying HP was expensive, compared to Dell on Enterprise Value (EV) and Free Cash Flow (FCF) metrics.

Don’t look now but we’re already in the zettabyte era. Next year, market forecaster IDC predicts, the volume of digital content will rise 48 percent, to 2.7 zettabytes.

Tablets are now becoming an integral part of our lives and as well as a portable alternative to PCs and laptops.

Lexmark International Group, the No. 2 U.S. laser printer maker, recommended customers download the latest “firmware” for their devices.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest computer company, rose slightly Thursday, a day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the company’s credit two notches.

Hewlett-Packard wants to see a jump in revenues from its software business, the company's chief executive told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.