We just heard that Walmart in Quebec, Nov. 16th through the 22nd, and the rest of Canada, Nov. 18th through the 24th, will sell the 16 GB BlackBerry PlayBook for $198. The 32 GB and 64 GB models will we on sale for $298 and $398 respectively.
Whether or not Walmart in the U.S. will hold a similar sale remains to be seen, but, now that the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet are upon us, RIM simply won’t be able to sell the BlackBerry PlayBook for much more than $200.
[Via RedFlagDeals]
Truth be told, $198 is still to much for the BlackBerryPlayBook. RIM needs to pull an HP. Make the PlayBook $99.
I’d hate to say it, but, your right. The PlayBook is a will be a difficult sell at even $200 after today. The Kindle Fire assures that. $99 makes the PlayBook something that people will just buy because it is $99. RIM can probably unload most of their remaining inventory by the end of the year if they just drop the bottom out of the price.
It would be stupid for RIM to drop the price that low. It costs the company over 3 times that amount just to manufacture the PlayBook.
It would actually be smart, and, this is probably exactly why RIM won’t do it. Look, the PlayBook is a complete failure. There really is no other way to look at it. The PlayBook came out in April and won’t have native email until at least February of next year.
I think that lowering the price to $99 would actually be a really smart move by RIM. As I said in my last comment, people will buy the BlackBerry PlayBook for $99 if for no other reason than it is only $99. Yes, RIM, would take a huge hit on selling them at fire sale prices, but, how does holding onto the hardware where it is no use to anyone help the company?
RIM is banking everything on BBX, but we are looking at February at the earliest before BBX is released. If RIM drops the price of the PlayBook to $99, they will sell a lot of devices to people who will eventually upgrade to BBX and potentially become a BBX cheerleader when it finally does ship.
I would pick a PlayBook up for $99 in a heartbeat. 100 for a mobile web browser sounds about right.
sorry, meant to reply to Norman R.
I like the hardware in the PlayBook more than I do the Kindle Fire, but, the lack of apps and the fact RIM hasn’t really updated the PlayBook since it came out has my leaning towards Amazon…