HP caught off guard by tablet success, promises more to come - market teaches us a lesson?

Funny how things change when companies make the right decision by accident, huh?  By now, you've probably heard about the recent price ($99 U.S) cut to HP's 'unsuccessful' tablet after HP itself announced it was getting out of the game altogether.  What you may NOT have heard is that those tablets have sold out and HP is promising to provide more to market to supply the demand. 

Conclusion?  People like cheap stuff.  -well, yes...but HP's tablet is hardly anything distinguished on the market.  It doesn't run either of the up-and-coming operating systems (iOS/Android/WinMobile8) nor does it have much support on the application side of things.  Yet at the current price, it is smashing the iPad which is arguably the best seller of this type of gadget.  So what gives?

I'll tell you - it's perceived value.  Quite frankly, everyone I talk to likes the idea of a tablet, they just don't like the price.  By design or folly, HP has inadvertently discovered the true desire of the market thus concluding that if Apple and their ilk want to see the iPad REALLY take off, they need to get their pricing down to sub $200 U.S. level before anything is really going to change.