Good news for those who have been trying to get their hands on an HP TouchPad: the company said today that it will produce one last run of TouchPads to meet demand.
HP said it will manufacture a "limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS" during the fourth quarter, which ends on October 31, but it will be several weeks before they are available.
"Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand," HP spokesman Mark Budgell said in a blog post.
Budgell did not know how many TouchPads will be produced, but it the supply will not be unlimited. "We can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone," he wrote. "We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase."
Only HP Home & Home Office will get the new TouchPads; HP’s Small and Medium Business team is "sold out of HP TouchPads and will not have more inventory," Budgell said.
HP said it sent out an email blast with this new information to those who requested to be informed when more TouchPads would be available; the company will send another email when the new stock comes in. In an earlier blog post, HP said it stopped accepting emails on its Web site because it could not meet additional demand.
Earlier this month, HP promised that it had more TouchPads coming from its warehouses, but did not know when that might happen. After dropping the price on the tablets to $99 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB, TouchPads quickly flew off HP's virtual shelves.
HP exec Todd Bradley, meanwhile, suggested in an interview with Reuters that this might not be the end for the TouchPad. "Tablet computing is a segment of the market that's relevant, absolutely," Bradley said. An HP spokesperson also told CNET that the company will likely release an over-the-air update for the TouchPad that will boost functionality.
Recently, HP released six free apps for the TouchPad and said it will unveil more next month. Yesterday, meanwhile, developers with CyanogenMod showed off a TouchPad running Android, but it's still in early stages and CyanogenMod said it needs more TouchPads to complete development.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the TouchPad. For apps, check out the 20 Best Apps For The HP TouchPad slideshow below, as well as the 10 Great Web Apps for the HP TouchPad.