HP TouchPad only $100 at Future Shop, now an over-powered e-book reader

Quick link to the TouchPad at Future Shop.

This past Sunday I walked in to Future Shop and was informed that just a few days before, staff were able to purchase the new HP TouchPad for only $150. Limited time offer. I was sorely disappointed that I missed this great opportunity. I thought, at the time, that this was simply a great way for HP to get salespeople onboard with the product. Let them take a TouchPad home at a great price and try it out for themselves, after all, there is absolutely no better way to become familiar with something than by using it yourself.

Not a week later it all began to make sense. They were giving them away cheap to be rid of overstocked inventory – HP is jumping ship on their long-promoted tablet.

But it doesn’t stop there! Now that the cat’s out of the bag and everyone knows that HP is leaving their tablet behind in the dust, they may as well get rid of ’em cheap! Yep cheap enough to essentially compete with your average e-book reader. In fact, cheaper than the $139 priced Kobo Touch, Kindle and Nook! The TouchPad is now just $99.99 at Future Shop.

Here’s what I find unsettling about the whole situation. I was actually a bit upset that I didn’t get to sink $150 into the (now lost-cause) TouchPad just last week. I actually wanted one… at the time. Now I can go pick one up for even less than it was last week – for no more than I spend on a few weeks groceries – and yet, I don’t want it. I have absolutely no interest in spending less money on a device I was perfectly willing to spend $150 on last week. Bizarre.

My excitement with the TouchPad has always been in what it has the potential to do – you know, with some updates, in the future, once people actually start developing apps for it. I guess HP’s excitement was not in the same place. They wanted people to be excited with it for what it was immediately upon launch and, when the immediate excitement just wasn’t there, it got dumped. Guess the annoying Russel Brandt ads just weren’t enough (shocker). Android device manufacturers are in for the long-haul and they know it; it’s too bad for the casually interested, like me, that HP didn’t think the same way.