HP has given its  employees first refusal on the last ever batch of TouchPad webOS-powered tablets, and demand has been high enough to take the company's website out.

HP's Employee Purchase Programme site which is a staff-only service where discounted goods can be procured has been bogged down by demand. An HP staffer who leaked to webOSroundup, said it took almost three hours to place an order for a single TouchPad once news broke of their availability. Many users were left with error messages complaining of high traffic and were unable to order their discount tablets at all.

It seems unlikely that any of the limited production run which was designed to dispose of unused parts in its inventory will make it out into the channel for retail sale.

More here.