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Anybody here remember the HP Touchpad firesale where HP liquidated their stock of cancelled not-quite-iPad-competitors for $99.99 and people went nuts for them?

Anybody here remember the HP Touchpad firesale where HP liquidated their stock of cancelled not-quite-iPad-competitors for $99.99 and people went nuts for them? It's weird how that felt like a great deal and yet this one is expensive enough to make me question if I could get anything close to that much value out of it. The HP firesale was back in the days where a decent tablet cost around $500 and it was a screaming deal. Now people practically give tablets away, I've seen Amazon's Fire tablets sell for $39 brand new.

dangus 6y ago
It was definitely a high end tablet at the time. Maybe it also reflected less of a worry about losing software support at that time. If Apple told us that the iPad was now discontinued and you could get an iPad Pro for $99, I wonder how many people would jump on it. If the software is dead the device is a brick. That concept wasn’t really on people’s minds as much in the PC days. In retrospect it’s unbelievable that HP had the lack of foresight to abandon webOS and Palm devices. Maybe there’s a lot of business reasons why it would have never worked but I remember Palm and HP TouchPad devices being very popular in the early consumer smartphone days, and the software was competitive. If it wasn’t good we wouldn’t see it all over smart TVs today.
- zozbot234 6y ago
  The HP webpad has pretty good software support even today, albeit obviously unofficial and not from HP. People are even looking into running pmOS on it; it's just hard because it's not a standard device in any sense, so it comes with its own booting, flashing etc. workflows.
wyldfire 6y ago
> I've seen Amazon's Fire tablets sell for $39 brand new. Agreed -- there's a big subsidy from Amazon there. But LCD screens and much of the same parts as computers+phones have had big economic forces driving the prices down.
- walshemj 6y ago
  I brought a 7 inch for £30 just so I can carry pdf copies of my pathfinder / starfinder books when I went to the Wargames Club to play. Saves crippling my shoulder by carrying a "Damm Heavy" bag with me.
deleted 6y ago
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sukilot 6y ago
Fire tablets are trash that can barely show books and streaming.
FlyingSnake 6y ago
I have one of those HP touchpads, and it is the best non-Apple/Android tablets I’ve seen. The webOS was so ahead of its time, and everyone generously borrowed its UI/UX. I can start it and it works flawlessly, an impressive feat For a 9 year old device.

dangus 6y ago

It was definitely a high end tablet at the time. Maybe it also reflected less of a worry about losing software support at that time. If Apple told us that the iPad was now discontinued and you could get an iPad Pro for $99, I wonder how many people would jump on it. If the software is dead the device is a brick. That concept wasn’t really on people’s minds as much in the PC days. In retrospect it’s unbelievable that HP had the lack of foresight to abandon webOS and Palm devices. Maybe there’s a lot of business reasons why it would have never worked but I remember Palm and HP TouchPad devices being very popular in the early consumer smartphone days, and the software was competitive. If it wasn’t good we wouldn’t see it all over smart TVs today.

zozbot234 6y ago
The HP webpad has pretty good software support even today, albeit obviously unofficial and not from HP. People are even looking into running pmOS on it; it's just hard because it's not a standard device in any sense, so it comes with its own booting, flashing etc. workflows.

wyldfire 6y ago

> I've seen Amazon's Fire tablets sell for $39 brand new. Agreed -- there's a big subsidy from Amazon there. But LCD screens and much of the same parts as computers+phones have had big economic forces driving the prices down.

walshemj 6y ago
I brought a 7 inch for £30 just so I can carry pdf copies of my pathfinder / starfinder books when I went to the Wargames Club to play. Saves crippling my shoulder by carrying a "Damm Heavy" bag with me.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

sukilot 6y ago

Fire tablets are trash that can barely show books and streaming.

FlyingSnake 6y ago

I have one of those HP touchpads, and it is the best non-Apple/Android tablets I’ve seen. The webOS was so ahead of its time, and everyone generously borrowed its UI/UX. I can start it and it works flawlessly, an impressive feat For a 9 year old device.