[1]http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/07/hp-touchpad-parts-analyze...
And if anyone is going to make inroads against the iPad, that's likely what they will have to do. Nobody is going to get the economy of scale that the iPad does with their first product, and nobody is going to have superior features at a similar price point, so the only way to make inroads is going to be the loss leader and making money off of a similar app store. (the playstation model)
Elsewhere in this thread, earl claims that around 25 million iPads (both generations) have been sold. So selling 10 million tablets would be a pretty huge inroad.
My take is that they set the price so low as to clear inventory quickly. I'm sure the deals they had with retailers made a prolonged sell-off at incrementally decreasing prices undesirable.