HP Confirms TouchPad Tablet Will See 'One Last Run'

HP will produce another run of TouchPads to meet what HP is calling "unfulfilled demand" for its WebOS tablet. It's a response by HP to a surge in sales for the TouchPad after HP slashed prices following its announcement earlier this month that the TouchPad would be discontinued.

"Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand," wrote Mark Budgell, an HP spokesman, in a post to HP's The Next Bench blog on Tuesday. "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 it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase."

The supply of TouchPads offered will be limited, Budgell said, but HP didn't offer any other specific details, except that the company will produce the tablets during tis fiscal fourth quarter, which ends Oct. 31.

There is no way to guarantee how low prices will be from HP retailers, Budgell wrote.

"Each retailer will manage their own policy and process regarding pricing and price matching," Budgell wrote. "Please contact the local retailer of your choice to see what their current position is."

HP on Aug. 18 said that it would stop manufacturing the TouchPad, just over six weeks after it launched, as well as "explore options" for WebOS, the mobile operating system it acquired with Palm in 2010. The TouchPad move startled more than a few HP solution providers, many of whom had crafted sales strategies around the TouchPad following several months of HP hyping the product and its potential as tablet blockbuster.

At the time, HP also said it was looking at options for its $42 billion Personal Systems Group (PSG), including spinning it off as a standalone company. In an interview earlier this week with Reuters, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of PSG at HP, suggested that HP could bring back the TouchPad.

In the weekend foliowing its TouchPad and PSG announcements, HP slashed the prices for its TouchPad to $99 for the 16 GB model and $149 for the 32 GB model -- a move that saw bargain hunters quickly snatch up the existing supply of TouchPads and empty out inventories at HP and its retail partners. The original price of the 16 GB model was $499.