As many as 200,000 HP TouchPads on the way

HP has bounced all over the map with its handling of the HP TouchPad, from dissatisfaction at the launch to cancellation of the product in just a few weeks. Most recently it announced that it was making a limited production run to get the TouchPad in the hands of the thousands who ordered one at fire-sale pricing, but didn't get one due to limited inventory. This run could be significant if information coming out of HP's partners is accurate.

DigiTimes is reporting that those who suspected the new run of TouchPads was HP's way of cleaning out the pipeline of hardware components that manufacturing partners were left holding with the unexpected product cancellation, is correct. Suppliers are reporting that HP had originally ordered the manufacture of 900,000 - 1.1 million TouchPads, yet only took delivery of 800,000 - 900,000. The fire sale of TouchPads at $99 was quite significant if these numbers are accurate.

The next production run of the HP TouchPad will use up the remaining parts inventory, which is 100,000 - 200,000 units, depending on how many HP has already sold. This speaks well for those wanting a cheap TouchPad but who didn't get one in the original sale. It also means over a million TouchPads will be in customer's hands, which is significant for a discontinued product, even at a hundred bucks.

Additional HP TouchPad coverage:

• HP TouchPad: Everything you want to know
• How to improve the performance of your new HP TouchPad
• HP’s TouchPad fire sale: The fallout
• HP punts on WebOS, discontinues TouchPad, cuts outlook
• A tale of two failures: Microsoft’s Kin and HP’s TouchPad
• webOS: A compelling OS that never appeared on great hardware
• Five lessons tablet OEMs can learn from HP TouchPad fiasco