HP to ship additional TouchPad tablets in the coming weeks

HP has confirmed that it will ship more TouchPads in the next few weeks to meet unfulfilled orders, with reports suggesting that 200,000 tablets could be manufactured to meet demand for the device, which now costs just $99.

The company said that a limited number of TouchPads will be produced, but it is unclear at this time whether they will be made available outside the US.

Mark Budgell, PR manager of social media strategy at HP, stated that this will be the last batch of TouchPads, after which production of webOS devices will cease.

"HP will be manufacturing a limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011 which ends 31 October," he wrote on The Next Bench blog.

"HP is discontinuing the development of webOS devices and is winding down device operations within our fourth fiscal quarter 2011."

Budgell added that HP's Small and Medium Business team has sold out of TouchPads and will not have any more inventory.

US retailer Best Buy was one of the first to cut the price of the tablet to just $99 in an effort to shift a backlog of over 200,000 units. The chain also offered refunds to customers who bought the TouchPad at full price.

In the UK, retailers including Dixons, Currys and PC World cut the price to £89, and saw stocks sell out overnight.