Oh my. Tablet prices are in a free fall. The HTC Flyer is only $99 at Best Buy right now. The price seems isolated to Best Buy right now so it’s likely the price drop is not from HTC but rather Best Buy. The website is sold out but your local stores still might have some. You know what to do: drop everything and head down to your Best Buy. This is an awesome deal and hopefully a sign that manufacturers and retailers are finally getting aggressive.
HP started the fire sale trend by dropping the TouchPad down to $99. Even with a dead OS, the TouchPad was an amazing deal for $99. HP and retailers sold out within hours. The HTC Flyer might be a slightly smaller tab, but it rocks a proven Android release and is built quite nice. It’s a steal at $99.
RIM also recently cut the price of its tablet, the PlayBook, to $300. But it’s still overpriced. Amazon got it right with the $200 Kindle Fire. Consumers need a low enough price that the purchase feels like a deal. Non-iPad tablets are going to be treading water until they’re priced right. It’s unrealistic to expect $99 mainstream tablets, but prices still need to drop to a more competitive level.
As liliputing points out, the Best Buy Flyer sale might have been an accident but it’s also a great deal worth pursuing. Drop everything and head down to your local Best Buy emporium and tell the blue-shirted shopkeeps to bring forward your Flyer post-haste.
Update: Best Buy fixed their goof but not before a good deal of people around the internet managed to snag one. Thanks to Stephen for the pic!