Tesco's Hudl 2 launch sees original unit sliced to £79

Supermarket Tesco has cut the price of the original 7in Hudl tablet by £40, bringing it down from £119 to a pocket-friendly £79, following the launch of the Hudl 2.

The Hudl 2 was unveiled in early October, with an 8.3in touchscreen and a price tag of £129. It went on sale on 9 October.

Tesco warned that there is limited stock of the Hudl 1 with its lower price tag. "Hurry. When it's gone, it's gone," the website says. The firm claims to have sold 750,000 units of the original tablet.

Its replacement is bigger, thinner and more powerful, with a full HD display backed by a quad-core Intel Atom processor and Google's Android 4.4 Kitkat mobile operating system.

The Hudl 2 has been released as Tesco moves out of the smartphone market because it cannot keep pace. The firm is presumably much happier with the success of the tablet format.

"Earlier this year we also announced plans to develop a smartphone under the Hudl brand," wrote Robin Terrell, group multi-channel director for Tesco, in September.

"We were confident that we could offer customers something we saw was lacking in the mobile market: an affordable, quality 4G smartphone handset. As we developed the idea in the first few months of the year, we could see a gap we could fill for our customers.

"The technology sector is fast changing and constantly evolving, and since then the mobile market has become even more competitive. I took the decision that we would put the phone on hold and concentrate on the Hudl 2 tablet."

:story: V3.co.uk