HP to make more Touchpads

HP will manufacture more Touchpads before the end of the year, but said that pricing will depend on individual retailers.

In an HP blog yesterday, Mark Budgell said the company had decided to "produce one last run of Touchpads to meet unfulfilled demand".

When the company dropped the price of the tablet PC, which runs HP's proprietary WebOS operating system, to £89 for the 16GB model and £115 for the 32GB, people scrambled to get their hands on one.

Now Budgell has said in his HP blog that despite the fact that the company was still in the process of winding down its production of WebOS hardware, it had been "pleasantly surprised" by consumers' response to the cut-price Touchpad. However, people will have to wait a few weeks more before HP produces enough of the devices.

"We don't know exactly when these units will be available or how many we'll get, and we can't promise we'll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase," Budgell added.

A comment on the Digitimes website said the last run may be a move by HP to appease suppliers that have vast inventories of components for the Touchpad, which was discontinued only two months after its US launch, and one month after it appeared on UK shelves.

"The suppliers are currently in negotiation with HP to find a solution for the component inventory," according to Digitimes.