HP: We'll do one more run of TouchPads, and that's it

HP announced it would cease production on its WebOS tablet, the TouchPad, just two months after releasing it because of a lack of consumer interest and because of an overall move by HP away from the consumer hardware space toward enterprise services, hardware, and printers.

But when HP slashed the price of the two TouchPad models to $99 and $149, they suddenly became the most desirable tablets on the market.

Demand for the TouchPad was so high that it sold completely out within days of its discontinuation, and there were simply more people looking for TouchPads than there were TouchPads.

So Today, HP announced it will be producing "one last run" of TouchPads during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 (ends on October 31st) to meet the unfulfilled demand. It did not say how many would be made, or when they would be available, but they are primarily to fill orders and inquiries that were made during the "TouchPad Gold Rush", but there will be more left for others to buy.

"We can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone," HP social media strategist Mark Budgell wrote yesterday. "We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase. "

But once this production run is made and shipped, that's it for the TouchPad. Budgell called it the device's "one last encore."