We’ve been seeing deeply discounted prices on the BlackBerry PlayBook going back two days before RIM’s Q2 Fiscal 2012 earnings call where co-CEO Jim Balsille said that you would see price cuts on the device. RIM recently released this statement to BGR clarifying that BlackBerry PlayBook retail pricing hasn’t changed and that the discounted price are a result of promotional plans to help with PlayBook sell through…
The official retail price of BlackBerry PlayBook has not changed. However, as mentioned on the Q2 earnings call on Sept. 15th, we have a number promotional plans in place for the fall with our retail partners that are intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook. We are already starting to see some of these promotions being implemented in the form of instant rebates and gift cards within the consumer channel, and expect these promotions to continue into the holiday season. The BlackBerry PlayBook has established itself as a high-performance tablet, and we are confident that these activities, along with the upcoming software upgrade, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, will help to generate an increase in demand and sell through of the BlackBerry PlayBook over the upcoming months.
[Via BGR]
Whether RIM calls it discounted pricing, promotional pricing, fire sale pricing or whatever, they now have to worry about a 7-inch Amazon Tablet that looks almost exactly like the PlayBook coming in with a price point under 250 bucks. Granted, the hardware in the PlayBook is much better than what is believed to be coming in the Kindle Fire, however, RIM is going to need to find a way to keep the 16 GB PlayBook under $300 for the foreseeable future if it is to have a shot at getting any meaningful sell through…
In the words of Bezo’s “There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less.”
Believe what you want to believe…
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