HP: $50 TouchPad rebate, with a catch
The company is offering the $50 rebate through July 31 on the purchase of its 32GB TouchPad. However, the company rebate is only available to those who own one of its smartphones.
Hewlett-Packard has announced a $50 rebate on its upcoming TouchPad tablet.
The company will offer the mail-in rebate on the purchase of its 32GB TouchPad, HP wrote on its Palm blog yesterday. The deal is good through July 31.
However, before consumers get too excited, there is one major catch: the $50 rebate is available only to those who can prove they own a Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, or Pixi Plus.
"When the first WebOS phone came out, a lot of you took a chance on our new platform," HP said on its blog. "We appreciate your support--as customers, as champions, and even occasionally as our most thoughtful critics--and we'd like to make it just a little easier for you to experience the latest version of the power of HP WebOS."
Though some might be disappointed by HP not offering the rebate to all customers, it makes some sense for the company to entice those who have its smartphones to buy the tablet. HP's TouchPad comes with the company's touch-to-share technology. Those who have a WebOS smartphone can tap the TouchPad with those devices and instantly share information between the platforms. In addition, those who have both a WebOS smartphone and TouchPad connected to their home network can receive and reply to SMS messages from the tablet.
HP's TouchPad is scheduled to ship on Friday. The company is selling both a 16GB model and a 32GB version for $499.99 and $599.99, respectively. The device itself comes with a 9.7-inch display and runs on a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It boasts a front-facing, 1.3-megapixel camera for video chatting.