HP Set to Release $99 Android Tablet at Walmart for 'Back to School' Season

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The above picture is of an HP Slate 7, but the final referenced tablet may not be this device.​

The already crowded Android tablet market is about to get a little more crowded. This time, HP is throwing another fighter in the ring, this time as a featherweight contender. According to DigiTimes, HP will introduce a new $99 dollar Android tablet during the "Back to School" season this year. The tablet will primarily be sold in Walmart stores across the U.S. Here's a quote from DigiTimes with more details,

Hewlett-Packard (HP) reportedly will launch a US$99 tablet and will cooperate with Wal-Mart to sell the device in the US retail channel, targeting back-to-school demand, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The US$99 tablet is manufactured by China-based BYD and is the second tablet that HP has outsourced to the China-based maker. The device adopts a 7-inch touch panel and Intel's Medfield-based single-core processor.

Despite the aggressive price-point, some analysts believe the tablet will have a tough time getting sales. It will likely have very low-end specs (even compared to last year's tablets). Here's another quote with the explanation,

This is the second time HP offered its tablet at US$99. In 2011, HP slashed its TouchPad's price from US$499 originally to US$99 to quickly clear out inventory due to weak demand. As a result, HP suffered great losses which impacted the device's manufacturer Inventec.

After 18 months, HP has returned to the tablet market, but has chosen to cooperate with China-based BYD for its tablet devices. Although HP had many issues such as shipment quality, the US brand vendor continues to outsource its new products to the China-based maker, indicating that Taiwan makers are losing their advantages and seeing their influence in the IT market weakening as the IT market gradually becomes price-oriented.

However, some market watchers believe that HP's US$99 tablet may not be able to gain advantages in the market as the tablet will be selling mainly through specific retail channels, limiting its overall sales volume, while the tablet's Intel single-core processor specification, compared to other vendors' quad-core ARM-based processors, may pose difficulties to attract consumers.

Sound off if you have an HP Android tablet and share your experience with it.

Source: DigiTimes