As the very last TouchPads leave the dusty shelves they’ve called home for the last month, making their way to consumers cashing in on fire-sale prices as low as $99, HP has announced it will sell its top-of-the-range Pre3 smartphone for just £49 ($80) in Europe only.
U.S. consumers will be left gnashing their teeth as the 1.4GHz processor smartphone, boasting both a touchscreen and slide-out keyboard as well as a 5-MP camera, tips up on the European market only.
The Pre3 is one of the few HP phones which actually works together with the TouchPad tablet, allowing users to take full advantage of the “bump to share” technology, allowing users to easily transfer data from smartphone to tablet and vice versa.
Selling off its tablets and smartphones at cut-throat prices may be shifting all the stock, but it’s estimated the move is costing HP $100m, not to mention the $1.2bn the firm spent buying Palm in the first place.
Whether the new Palm smartphones prove as popular with European consumers as the TouchPad tablet remains to be seen, especially with a slew of cheaper smartphones emerging over the coming month. Competitor RIM, for instance, has just launched its new Curve models, due out in early September.
Regardless, the cheaper prices are good news for consumers who typically find new high-end gadgetry out of their price range.
