HP TouchPad: What owners need to know

Consumers who have picked up a TouchPad may be wondering what kind of support they can expect from HP going forward. We reached out to HP with some of these concerns.

Last week, Hewlett-Packard announced that it was moving away from the PC business to focus on software and the cloud. The fairly new TouchPad tablet was also discontinued—and shortly thereafter, the WebOS tablet's price dropped precipitously, from $400 to $99 for the16GB version and down from $600 to $150 for the 32GB version.

Many consumers rushed to take advantage of the bargain; now, many outlets report they're sold out of the device. Given that fact, and considering that no more TouchPads will be manufactured, Consumer Reports has dropped the TouchPad from our tablet Ratings. (You can still see our First Look video review here.)

Will HP support TouchPads?

An HP spokesperson told us that the company is committed to the ongoing support and service of customers who purchased webOS devices. "We will honor our product warranties and will continue to provide market leading support via services such as webOS Butler, our free setup support service available to all purchasers of HP webOS products for the first 90 days after purchase," said the spokesperson.

She also told us, "We expect that HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog. We plan to continue to investigate the best ways to leverage webOS software and grow the applications."

This doesn't mean TouchPad owners should count on many new apps being developed for webOs, though. Chances are that most developers will focus on creating apps for more prevalent mobile operating systems, such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

What if you paid full price for a TouchPad?

According to tech blog ZDNet.com, HP has encouraged retailers to refund the price difference between what customers paid and the $99 sale price, with some success so far:

HP was first to step up and offer a price match to any TouchPad customer who bought from the company's online store. Next Best Buy has stepped up and indicated through its community forum that price matching will be offered.

If you purchased a TouchPad from another retailer, call and request a refund for the price difference. Hopefully your store will participate.

—Carol Mangis