Updated 2h 52m ago
By Eric Risberg, AP
HP sent crowds of geeks to queue in front of retailers over the weekend after itabandoned the TouchPad, a tablet computer, and retailers were forced to sell them for $99 -- a $300 discount and well below cost.
On Saturday, I made calls to about a dozen metro Detroit retailers in search of a TouchPad. All of them had sold out early that morning.
Then, word came overnight that stores, namely Best Buy, would have some inventory this morning. Who can turn down a $99 tablet? Not me.
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I started at one Best Buy location, arriving about 30 minutes before the store was to open at 11 a.m.
Others clearly had the same idea. I was No. 37 in the line.
After a short wait, a Best Buy employee came out to tell us that the store had no TouchPads in stock.
"But we do have a bunch of netbooks you could take a look at," he said.
The crowd quickly dispersed.
At the next-closest Best Buy, just eight people were waiting. I made myself No. 9, hoping this store would have some in stock.
They did.
So now I have an HP TouchPad.
What am I going to do with it?
I'm not sure yet.
I'm still exploring the device, but check back for my take after a few days with it.
Here's hoping I didn't just buy an expensive clock.
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