Tuesday, August 30, 2011

WebOS tablets....oh the irony!

Today, HP's Mark Budgell updated the company's blog addressing the WebOS tablet clearance madness:

"Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase. 
HP will be manufacturing a limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011, which ends October 31."
So there you go...upon seeing the huge demand for its tablets at $99 / $149, HP has decided that, aside from clearance of existing stock, it will continue to manufacture WebOS tablets through the end of their financial fourth quarter.

And therein lies a major irony, because many people aren't buying them up for WebOS, but for the promise of CyanogenMod's Android Honeycomb root for WebOS tablets...see below.  The demand for Android tablets is definitely there, but pricing-wise, current manufacturers are far off the mark, which continues to effectively keep a lid on Android tablet sales.

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