Hong Kong and New Zealand quietly receive HP TouchPad 15

HP’s slowly but surely making good on their promise to expand the HP TouchPad’s distribution footprint across the globe. Late last month they announced that the TouchPad would be hitting the Asia-Pacific region in August, and while we know to expect the tablet on the 15th in Australia and can already order one in Singapore, what about Hong Kong and New Zealand?

HP pulled off a fanfare-free launch over in those two countries, managing to not even send out a press release about availability. But the TouchPad is now available in those countries, even if HP said nothing about it. HP Hong Kong is selling the 16GB TouchPad for HKD 3,180 (US$407), and the 32GB TouchPad for HKD 3,980 (US$510).

New Zealanders can also grab a TouchPad, with HP and retailer Bond and Bond offering the tablet for purchase. The Kiwi TouchPad is recommended for pricing at NZD $679 (US$564) for the 16GB TouchPad, while 32GB will set you back a whopping NZD $819 (US$681). It doesn't help that HP's own New Zealand distribution partner Acquire is asking even more than that (NZD $799 and NZD $949 (!)) as is Bond and Bond, as seen above. Clearly the price cut managed to make it to Hong Kong before New Zealand.

With Hong Kond and New Zealand crossed off the list, that makes ten countries in which HP distributes the TouchPad, which is notably better (and faster) than Palm ever managed with their webOS smartphones. Then again, you can just sell a Wi-Fi tablet to whomever you like and not have to worry about the whole carrier relations thing like you do with a phone. Still left on HP’s “we’ve got scale” list: Italy and Spain, though you know we’d like to see more expansion beyond that point too.