$99 HP TouchPad: Which is Better for the TouchPad - Fire Sale or Android Port?
After the HP TouchPad was discontinued due to poor sales, a fire sale liquidating its price from $499 to just $99 has made the tablet one of the hottest products on the market.
Once the CyanogenMod team released its alpha 1 and alpha 2 ports of Android 2.3, Gingerbread for the TouchPad, interest in the tablet has increased.
Now consumers are awaiting the final shipment of 200,000 TouchPads to retail store as well as the Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich port for the tablet.
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Both the fire sale and the port have contributed to the popularity of the HP TouchPad.
Other than the iPad, no other tablet computer has received as much recognition as the TouchPad, or as many sales.
While the fire sale made the TouchPad a known brand, the Android port has prolonged the popularity of the tablet, commentators suggest, as Android is considered the most popular platform in the world.
While HP has stated that it plans to continue providing updates of WebOS, its operating system for the TouchPad, reports have indicated that WebOS may soon be discontinued completely.
This could mean that the only updates available for the TouchPad would be in the form of ports.
The CyanogenMod team, whom continues to work on updates for its Gingerbread port, has stated that it may take several months to develop a viable port for Ice Cream Sandwich after its release in November.
It took the team approximately four months to develop a Gingerbread port for the TouchPad. Based on that time frame, an Ice Cream Sandwich port may not be available until March 2012.
By that time however, HP may be marketing TouchPads, or another tablet computer powered by Windows 8, reports indicate.
