NEW YORK - Hewlett-Packard Co. has cut prices of TouchPad tablet computers by $100 one month after introducing the product, a move that may help the company compete with Apple Inc.’s market-leading iPad.
TouchPads cost $399.99 for a 16-gigabyte model and $499.99 for a 32-gigabyte version, according to HP’s website. The Palo Alto, Calif., company had said it would charge $499.99 for 16 gigabytes and $599.99 for 32 gigabytes.
The tablet market is dominated by the iPad, which generated $6 billion in sales in the most recent quarter.
Price reductions make the TouchPad $100 less expensive than comparable iPad 2 models, which may help the HP tablets draw customers from Apple, said Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co.
HP should have priced the TouchPad below the iPad when it introduced the tablet last month, Marshall said. “To have a product that’s new to the market come out at the same level as the iPad offerings doesn’t make much sense.’’
