Amazon crippled by demand for PDA bargain

The Amazon.co.uk website has been closed, until further notice. It is likely the downtime is related to a bargain-priced PDA which was being sold this morning for a fraction of the recommended retail price.

The site was running slowly all morning before being taken down around noon. It is likely the pioneering e-tailer was overwhelmed by demand for the HP iPaq which it had been selling for the bargain price of £7.32. Normally the HP iPaq PocketPC H1910 handheld retails for between £299 and £330, according to a cross-section of online outlets.

Emails alerting shoppers to the gadget sale have been arriving in inboxes up and down the country all morning and silicon.com readers have also been quick to draw our attention to what must be the sale of the century.

silicon.com first became aware of the sale at 10:15 (GMT) this morning. By 12:15 the site, which had been running incredibly slowly all morning - presumably due to demand for the iPaq - was taken down, with a holding page advising shoppers that Amazon.co.uk is closed until further notice.

We will have more on this story later in the day.