HP’s Internal $99 TouchPad Sale More Popular Than Expected, Crushes Web Server

September 29, 2011 at 14:17 PM EDT

People love the $99 TouchPad including HP employees. The TouchPad hit the HP's employee purchasing program yesterday and potential buyers showed up en mass, promptly crashing the servers. It's unclear how many TouchPads were sold, but my HP source didn't manage to snag a cheap TouchPad yet. Instead, he received (and forwarded) an email detailing the problem and warning employees not to bother the call center with their woes. "Our site is too slow," he said. HP might still have TouchPads reserved for employees as he hasn't received an email stating they're sold out. Hopefully after HP takes care of its employees the company will release the last TouchPads to retailers. After the first batch dried up last month, most stores started wait lists after HP announced more were on their way. My daily routine involves checking several retailers' websites in the hope that I stumble upon an active Buy Now link -- apparently a good chunk of HP's 300,000 employees are doing the same thing right now.

People love the $99 TouchPad including HP employees. The TouchPad hit the HP’s employee purchasing program yesterday and potential buyers showed up en mass, promptly crashing the servers. It’s unclear how many TouchPads were sold, but my HP source didn’t manage to snag a cheap TouchPad yet. Instead, he received (and forwarded) an email detailing the problem and warning employees not to bother the call center with their woes. “Our site is too slow,” he said. HP might still have TouchPads reserved for employees as he hasn’t received an email stating they’re sold out.

Hopefully after HP takes care of its employees the company will release the last TouchPads to retailers. After the first batch dried up last month, most stores started wait lists after HP announced more were on their way. My daily routine involves checking several retailers’ websites in the hope that I stumble upon an active Buy Now link — apparently a good chunk of HP’s 300,000 employees are doing the same thing right now.

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HP TOUCHPAD

Product:HP TouchPadWebsite:h41112.www4.hp.comCompanyHewlett-Packard

TouchPad works like no other tablet. It allows users to move back and forth between apps, see related activities grouped together automatically to stay organized, answer calls and texts from HP Pre3 smartphones, share websites with other HP webOS devices, experience more of the web with Adobe Flash Player 6 and 7. TouchPad tablet includes essential productivity apps right out of the box. Users can collaborate with colleagues using Google Docs or Box.net, print wirelessly to compatible networked HP printers,...

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