Hewlett-Packard is offering TouchPad buyers a $50 rebate when they buy the $599.99, 32GB version of the upcoming tablet, but they have to own a Palm smartphone to cash in.
"Through July 31, you can get a $50 rebate on the purchase of a new 32GB TouchPad," writes HP's Jon Zilber on the Official HP Palm Blog. "Proof of ownership of a Palm Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi, or Pixi Plus (initially in the US or Canada) will be required. This mail-in rebate is good wherever you buy your TouchPad, including preorders and reservations."
HP acquired Palm and its webOS mobile operating system in July 2010. A big selling point for the TouchPad is that it can sync with other webOS-based devices like HP's Pre smartphones simply by touching the two devices together.
Two versions of the 9.7-inch, Wi-Fi-only TouchPad running webOS will be released in the U.S. on Friday and in Canada in mid-July. The 16GB version of the tablet is priced at $499.99. Both the 16GB and 32GB versions will arrive in the U.K., Ireland, France, and Germany several days after HP's first media tablet makes its U.S. debut.
TouchPads with 3G connectivity via AT&T will be released later this summer, according to the company.
HP began taking pre-orders in the U.S. and Europe on June 19, but that campaign hit a minor snag early on when several of the company's online reseller partners failed to have pre-order landing pages up on their websites in time for that date.
The TouchPad is being sold directly by HP and is also being stocked by such resellers as Best Buy, CDW, Staples, Office Depot, Walmart, Sam's Club, OfficeMax, Amazon.com, Fry's, NewEgg, and Microcenter.
The TouchPad has a 1,024-by-768 capacitive touch screen display, is powered by a 1.2GHz, dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and comes with a 1.3-megapixel webcam that supports video calls, Beats Audio technology, and stereo speakers. The 1.6-pound TouchPad is 13.7mm thick and includes Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, as well as a gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass.
HP will offer a couple hundred apps for the TouchPad at launch, well below the tens of thousands of iPad apps available from Apple's App Store, and similarly large numbers available in the Android Market for tablets running Google's Android OS.
PCMag unboxed the TouchPad this week and here's the full review.