At 6pm this evening (22nd Aug) the HP Touchpad (£350) was lowered in price in the UK to £89 matching the recently lowered US price ($99), due to HP deciding to ditch the WebOS powered Smartphones and Touchpad.
Within minutes of the announcement shops all over the country were hit with a barrage of interest from the general public wanting to get their hands on a tablet that in many ways is as good as an iPad but could also run flash.
People were reported to have been ordering as many as they could before stocks ran out or they hit an imposed "per customer" limit. Electrical Shops like PCWorld, Comet and Dixons had their "click to collect" service's sold out within minutes and stock levels emptying out within the hour with most stores only have a few Touchpad's in stock due to previous low demand at the higher price.
People were being advised to "camp out" Apple Store style, or queue from early in the morning to acquire any remaining stock that hasn't already been taken by their online or reservation operations. There are reported to be only a few thousand left in warehouses for the entire UK.
Meanwhile the remaining touchpad stock continues to drain quickly in the US with the device hitting the #1 spot on Amazon and virtually selling out. With all the renewed focus on the device a large community has sprung up to support the device (as official HP support will be ending) and an Android OS port looks to be on its way.
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