HP TouchPad for £90 in 70 per cent price cut

Fancy an HP TouchPad for less than a hundred quid? Stand by your bed, because Dixon's, Curry's and PC World are slashing 70 per cent off the soon-to-be-discontinued tablet.

Dixon's spokesman Mark Webb just tweeted, "Dixons.co.uk: HP Touchpad SALE, Limited Stock online from later today. £89 for the 16GB and £115 for the 32GB." That's a vertiginous drop from £350 and £430, more than 70 per cent down on the current price. 

The whopping price cut will come into effect today on online stores. There will then be limited stock in branches of stores from tomorrow. A similar price slash in the US has seen the tablet sell out completely.

The price-drop has certainly ignited a new interest in the TouchPad, and could see a huge number of tablets shifted. Nilay Patel, former editor of Engadget, popped into his local Best Buy, where he was told, "They had sold 3 TouchPads in the past two months, blew through 70 in 30 minutes yesterday."

Ironically, the sale could end up fixing one of the problems that caused HP to abandon the TouchPad and its webOS ecosystem: there aren't enough apps because developers aren't interested in a system no-one owns. Now, with many more people owning TouchPads than would have otherwise bothered, will developers take more of an interest? Imagine if, like Vincent van Gogh, the TouchPad only becomes a hit after it's died.

We weren't overwhelmed by the TouchPad, although we did like the webOS interface -- but it's a hell of a lot of tablet for these prices. It's also a much better option than the many sub-£100 Android tablets kicking about.

Asked when the sale would begin, Webb tweeted, "Soon, but can't confirm exact time." So warm up your page-refresh finger and oil your F5 button ready for the sale to start. Or if you're feeling flush and want to avoid the rush -- hey, that rhymes -- you can buy one at full price now and claim a refund afterwards.

Update: The sale is now on, so don't hang around here.

Will you take advantage of the sale, or is there no discount that could tempt you to the TouchPad? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.