BlackBerry PlayBook on sale for as little as $199

[Suave]

In case you guys haven't heard yet, RIM has put all of its PlayBook tablets on a huge sale until the end of this month.

The 16 GB can be yours for just $199.

Appearantly most (if not all) stores are now sold out but it can be puchased on the BlackBerry website here:
http://ca.blackberry.com/playbook-ta...bletWhereToBuy

[AlienTech]

I picked one (32G unit) up a few days before the big sale, took it back as soon as I heard about the sale and they refunded the difference :-)

my first good experience at a Bell store LOL!

[pharsyde]

Thank you Suave ...

I purchased the 16 GB this morning. Free shipping as well.

[Suave]

Does anyone know why BlackBerry is selling these for so little? I haven't heard anything...

[AlienTech]

maybe because they don't sell for a lot

Unless you are Apple, this is a tough market. Companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble who have content to sell (like Apple) to their tablet/reader customers and have that type of revenue stream to cover the loss on their tablet/reader sales will find it a very tough market at high prices.

With the bad press BB got for their PlayBook, they had to do something to move product. When HP had their fire sale they were sold out in 3 days.

It appears the sweetspot for a tablet with no strings attached and NOT an iPad is $200

AS evidenced by BB being sold out of their $199 16gb unit.

[Suave]

True enough AlienTech - $200 for tablets would certainly be a very attractive price point to most consumers.

I was very tempted to pick up the PlayBook myself when they went on sale, the only thing that prevented me was the 7-inch screen. I've become so accustomed to the 10-inch screen on my iPad for surfing the net and reading magazine that I don't think I could go to a smaller screen (it seems that I would have to zoom in on everything to make it readable). A 10-inch tablet screen seems to hit mark for displaying websites and magazine pages and allows you to read them without zooming in.

I'm hoping that Samsung will put its Galaxy tablets on sale before the holidays - I wouldn't mind owning one of those

[pharsyde]

Interesting article stumbled upon ...

The long delayed PlayBook OS 2.0 hasn't helped, as consumers interested may be holding off for the update before investing, in what appears to be a classic example of the Osborne Effect. The company reiterated in the statement that the current PlayBook would be upgradable to the new OS - pre-empting any Osborne-esque behaviour.

PlayBook OS 2.0 is due in February, and will significantly increase the tablet's feature set with dedicated email and calendar support, alongside through the company's new BlackBerry Mobile Fusion multi-platform Mobile Device Management software. The company is also busy preparing the PlayBook 2

Source: RIM takes a $485m write-down

[AlienTech]

I carry my PB with with me on sales calls so the 7" size is perfect and even though the old eyes are not what they used to be, I don't have a problem reading web related stuff.

I would not use it for watching video even though it does have a great screen, unless I was stuck somewhere with nothing else to watch.

It does have HDMI out so you can connect it to any TV with HDMI.

I like the fact that if someone steals it they don't get any of my emails. Our company uses Outlook and it integrates perfectly in that environment. We also use SalesForce as our corporate CRM and using the PB for that is a dream compared to using SF on any other BB device or smartphone.

I have been trying a few apps and with the multi tasking capabilities I can DL something while continuing to work on a word document or spreadsheet.

I'd say for business, it's the cats ass

[pharsyde]

I am certainly looking forward to the arrival of my PB. I have a hunch, expectation it will be very high quality build, and function. I agree regarding your perspective utilizing PB in the business environment. In fact, another article I read re: RIM stated the company does have significant presence in the corporate world, although signs of this eroding are creeping in. I'm just reiterating from, IMO, reputable publications I enjoy reading such as Reuters, and BBC. I may find the article again as I browse in the evenings.

[Suave]

Thanks for sharing the article above pharsyde - I read the same news elsewhere a few days ago. Sometimes it takes a big investment to gain enough market share in a particular sector. Hopefully this is how it plays out for RIM in the end but I suppose we'll have to wait and see. It sounds like the PlayBook will be more attractive to potential buyers when OS 2.0 comes out and when it's opened up to the Andriod app market.

You guys are perfectly right in saying that the PlayBook, much like BlackBerry phones, is a great device for business users. Both are designed to make lives of business users a little easier when on the road. The PlayBook's somewhat small 7-inch screen is also its great advantage because it makes it very portable. Apple's iPad on the other hand is much better suited for entertainment, gaming and internet surfing (although the lack of Flash is just plain stupidity).

On a side note, would one of you guys be nice enough to check the digital edition of CANADA HiFi on your PlayBook and let me know if it works properly. The software that we use to generate digital editions was updated very recently.