Were you actually in the market for an HP Touch Pad before the $99 markdown?

[beaucoup]

Just popped over to this board to see what new money saving tips I could pick up here, mainly about food. However I couldn't get over several threads about the markdown of the HP Touch Pads to $99 because no one wanted to buy them in the first place. Not as popular as iPad.

It shocked me actually. I thought this was a money saving board. How many of you were actually looking to buy an HP Touch Pad before this anyway?

A product that will not have tech support. I have an HP Dream Screen. An interactive digital frame. Another of their products they dropped & when they moved onto the Touch Pad. And now they've dropped the Touch Pad without it being fully functional.

Product is full of bugs & they offer no tech support & are not going to be fixing any of the bugs. Trying to intergrate with with our computer, forget about it. And it will only get worse as computer upgrades make more of the digital screens functions incompatible.

That's most likely how it will be with their Touch Pads. Bugs. And no help.

Another reason no one was buying them to begin with.

Don't get me wrong. We have other HP products. Laptops. Printers. However, if they discontinue a line, forget about getting any help from them at all.

Good luck.
NOT worth $99 to me.
Save the money for the Disney trip you are all trying to save for. That's the purpose of this board, right?

 

[RitaE]

No - and everywhere I go on the internet I keep seeing threads about them.

Everytime I see them "in stock" I have to fight that human urge to run and grab what is rare by reminding myself I have absolutely no use for the thing.

 

[cglaura]

Just popped over to this board to see what new money saving tips I could pick up here, mainly about food. However I couldn't get over several threads about the markdown of the HP Touch Pads to $99 because no one wanted to buy them in the first place. Not as popular as iPad.

It shocked me actually. I thought this was a money saving board. How many of you were actually looking to buy an HP Touch Pad before this anyway?

A product that will not have tech support. I have an HP Dream Screen. An interactive digital frame. Another of their products they dropped & moved on to other things.

Product is full of bugs & they offer no tech support & are not going to be fixing any of the bugs. Trying to intergrate with with our computer, forget about it. And it will only get worse as computer upgrades make more of the digital screens functions incompatible.

That's most likely how it will be with their Touch Pads. Bugs. And no help.

Another reason no one was buying them to begin with.

Don't get me wrong. We have other HP products. Laptops. Printers. However, if they discontinue a line, forget about getting any help from them at all.

Good luck.
NOT worth $99 to me.
Save the money for the Disney trip you are all trying to save for. That's the purpose of this board, right?

I wouldn't buy anything that won't have tech support. In case others didn't see it, HP is looking to spin off their PC division.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/18/technology/hp_pc_spinoff/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

Among the article:

The company said Thursday that it is looking to spin off its industry-leading but struggling personal computer business. HP also killed off the TouchPad tablet it launched last month, as well as its webOS smartphone line. The move essentially leaves for dead the webOS software HP got by acquiring Palm last year, though the company said it will continue trying to "optimize the value" of its purchase. Though the move was unexpected, it's not all that surprising: Despite a huge marketing campaign, TouchPad sales struggled so much that HP almost immediately cut the tablet's price by $100. HP said none of its webOS products reached the company's internal sales targets.

 

[kerplop]

At $499 or whatever? Absolutely not. I want an iPad, don't get me wrong, but I can't bring myself to even think of spending that kind of money on something. $100? No problem. I realize it's not nearly as good and the support will be gone, but for what it is I'll be happy with mine. It's cheaper than a Kindle which I wanted anyway and can use it for that, plus so many other things. If I don't end up with one I won't cry about it or be otherwise upset, but I would have liked to have one for $100.

 

[beaucoup]

Here's my money saving tip. Don't buy obsolete or unsupported brand new gadgets. Marked down or not.

Stick with tried & true.

 

[kerplop]

Here's my money saving tip. Don't buy obsolete or unsupported brand new gadgets. Marked down or not.

Stick with tried & true.

I know you're trying to help, but my tip is not to give people unsolicited money advice when you know nothing about their situation. If I want to waste $100 of my own money what do you care? And trust me, I'm not some technological rube who has no idea what I'm getting myself into here.

 

[beaucoup]

I know you're trying to help, but my tip is not to give people unsolicited money advice when you know nothing about their situation. If I want to waste $100 of my own money what do you care? And trust me, I'm not some technological rube who has no idea what I'm getting myself into here.

Wasn't aimed at you directly.
Why so touchy? No pun intended.

I thought this board WAS for money advice.
Jeesh.

 

[kerplop]

Wasn't aimed at you directly.
Why so touchy? No pun intended.

I thought this board WAS for money advice.
Jeesh.

Giving advice on money is fine if someone is asking for it, but I said exactly why I was buying one and you insisted on giving me tips that I wasn't asking for. With the attitude that surely I must not know what I'm in for (which by the way is uninformed, since most technology experts are saying that barring support the webOS isn't being discontinued and that people are porting the device for Android anyway). And since I'm the only one who responded to your initial question, who else were you aiming it at exactly? What I'm saying is that FOR WHAT IT IS and for what you get out of it, $100 is a bargain to me. Which is what I said initially and then you proceeded to condescend to tell me that I should save my money anyway.

 

[hsmamato2]

I agree w/OP.....I first thought.."maybe I NEED one!" then I rethought.....if I don't need one for 500.00-I don't need one for 100.00. simple as that. and If I'm gonna invest ANY time or money into something,I'll buy exactly what I need,when I need it. saves me money every time.

 

[beaucoup]

Giving advice on money is fine if someone is asking for it, but I said exactly why I was buying one and you insisted on giving me tips that I wasn't asking for. With the attitude that surely I must not know what I'm in for (which by the way is uninformed, since most technology experts are saying that barring support the webOS isn't being discontinued and that people are porting the device for Android anyway). And since I'm the only one who responded to your initial question, who else were you aiming it at exactly? What I'm saying is that FOR WHAT IT IS and for what you get out of it, $100 is a bargain to me. Which is what I said initially and then you proceeded to condescend to tell me that I should save my money anyway.

Again, I was NOT responding to your post. If I had, I would have quoted it.
Sorry you were offended by something you read.

 

[beaucoup]

I agree w/OP.....I first thought.."maybe I NEED one!" then I rethought.....if I don't need one for 500.00-I don't need one for 100.00. simple as that. and If I'm gonna invest ANY time or money into something,I'll buy exactly what I need,when I need it. saves me money every time.

Glad you understood what I meant.

 

[gracie1]

I bought one today, the 32 gb for $149. I have wanted one, and had been looking at a dell, and then was looking at the hp, and the ipad. If it had not gone on sale, and I had $600 I would've bought the ipad. But since I have been wanting one, this is great!! And i'm not worried whether or not there will be support through hp, because I have IT friends who can figure it out

 

[redlawyer]

I (hopefully) bought the HP tablet yesterday. I was going to get dd a Nook color for Xmas, but this is cheaper. Yes, it will not be updated, but if she only uses it to read books, I'm fine with that. So actually, it was a cost sqvings for me. And it will keep her off my iPad!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

My kids have been bugging us for ipads. Somehow they think we have a money tree.
So at $600 x 2 kids, that's a hard nut to crack. At $200-300 total, this will have to do.
Sheesh, it's not much more than some xbox games that get left lying around the house. Not only can we use them as a kindle, but surf the internet, watch movies on the plane, etc.

How long does the $600 ipad last before the battery dies? A few years? At 1/6 of the price, I'll take my chances w/o support or upgrades thank you.


If you were eyeing a $30,000 new car but just couldn't fit it into your budget, then suddenly could get one very similar for just $5000, would you not strongly reconsider?

Flame on, dude!

 

[bunnielly]

I wasn't in the market until it went on sale. Now I have a Christmas gift for my daughter. I had no idea what to get her so this board helped me get something I know she'll love. Plus it doesn't need support for our uses, it's just for movies when we travel. This function isn't dependent on future support.

 

[mkstlowe]

My daughter has been wanting one. For 600+ dollars it was not in our budget with our Disney trip coming up. Her birthday is in Sept, and this could not of happen at the perfect time. My Disney trip is paid in full now. So right now we are saving for spending money. OUr trip is not till end of OCT. So I might have $100 less for our trip, but her smile on Sept 1 will be well worth it.

 

[bonoriffic]

For some reason, everyone wants a tablet. Few know why. This article looks into that. http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/21/editorial-tablets-arent-the-third-device-id-hoped-for-fr/

Why would you buy a $99 HP tablet when it will no longer be supported? Lots of reasons. First, it will be supported, directly or indirectly. WebOS is not new. It has been around longer than Android and is well tested on the phone side. It was developed at Palm before being sold to HP, so the basics are solid. HP hasn't said WebOS is going away, in fact have gone out of their way to say the opposite. They hope to license WebOS to others, or continue to enhance it themselves. What they are getting rid of is their tablet hardware, and hopefully the personal computer division. It may just be PR speak, but for now WebOS isn't dead, and even without HP it will likely continue to be "supported" by others.

Is the tablet perfect? Nope. The hardware is a bit too slow. But as long as you are buying it knowing what it can and can't do, even if HP disappeared tomorrow the device wouldn't stop working. When people bought a Playstation years ago did you worry, oh no, it can't be updated over the internet it won't work? No. My original Playstation still works.

The device will play music, browse the internet, and play videos. That functionality is no less solid than similar devices. Maybe in 3 years a new internet technology will come along that this won't support, but for now it supports HTML 5 and flash, something even the iPad can't say.

Finally, this is a $309 device. That is the actual raw material cost. This isn't a generic off brand MP3 player, it is a solid device with the occasional hiccup any other tablet also has. Look at online reviews. People were happy with their purchase at $399, to get the same device at $99 is unheard of. That is why everyone wants one. At $600 an iPad isn't an impulse purchase. At $99, I'll gladly upgrade my daily train commute video experience from phone to 10" tablet.

 

[pyrxtc]

I was very interested. I want and e-reader but want it to do more. For $150, I can buy one. I think I know what I'm getting for my birthday !

 

[Evi]

Here is the thing if your not technical don't buy it. Is it an ipad no its not and its not supposed to be. Is the technology going to be depricated probably soon enough. Is some geek going to come out with a hack that will enable the system to be loaded and run a different operating system and various apps. Yes. Will I reload mine with these types of applications knowing that I'm voiding my warranty and have a system that does awesome things for $150 yes. Will you be able to do the same? I don't know. Only you know how technical you are and only you know how much your going to be willing to play with it. If nothing else I know I have a reader that's going to show my magazines in color and that I can watch movies on and considering it cost less then a nook and will be able to support PDFs and what ever else I want to put on it yeah $150 is a deal and a half.

 

[Figmificent]

Nope wasn't in the market. However, saw it, did my research, and decided it would be a great Xmas gift for grandma who basically wants to read her email and such. So it was about saving money for us bc we were looking at other tablets or netbooks