Harvey Norman will not get new stock of the ill-fated $98 Hewlett-Packard TouchPad tablet, after HP announced it will temporarily resume manufacturing its tablet 11 days after killing off the iPad rival.The new batch is bound for US retail stores only: Australia won’t get a look-in, the local H-P subsidiary confirmed yesterday. All local stock has been sold.
Following a consumer stampede to buy up the handsets, the company has had second thoughts and decided to resurrect TouchPad after worldwide stocks ran out of inventory following a drop in the sale price from US$399 to $99.
The decision to discontinue the TouchPad came less than two months after the tablet first went on sale in July, but made little traction against the iPad, despite an earlier 20 percent price drop.
H-P executives previously said sales were too weak to justify continued investment.
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The company’s US PR manager, Mark Budgell, said that a limited number of TouchPads would be available soon and that the company will manufacture the tablets until October 31.
