The tablet market, just a few years old, is already crowded with tablet designs from nearly every tech manufacturer. Predictions show that the tablet market should grow to a record size this year, while shipments of traditional PCs are now declining. Though Apple and Amazon are largely dominating the 7-inch tablet market, that hasn’t stopped other manufacturers from trying to grab a piece of it.

DigiTimes today reported that HP will be releasing a $99 tablet for the back-to-school season. According to the report’s unnamed “sources from the upstream supply chain,” the tablet will be sold at Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. The device will reportedly have a 7-inch screen and an Intel Medfield single-core processor.

The tablet will be HP’s first sub-$100 tablet, but only if the HP TouchPad isn’t counted. The TouchPad debuted in 2011 as a competitor to the iPad, but failed tremendously. The tablet’s $499 price was slashed to only $99 to clear out inventory, and quickly sold out at both online and physical retailers.

HP’s latest 7-inch tablet, the HP Slate 7, sells for $169. That tablet’s specs are comparable to Amazon’s original Kindle Fire tablet. HP’s tablets will be competing this fall with Google’s recently announced upgraded Nexus 7 and a refreshed lineup of Amazon’s Kindle tablets.

(Image courtesy mbiebusch under Creative Commons License)

(via DigiTimes)