“Retailers are putting Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Playbook on sale and discounting the troubled tablet computer,” The Canadian Press reports.
“Two of Canada’s biggest electronics retailers, Best Buy and Future Shop, cut the price of all three versions of Playbook by $100,” The Canadian Press reports. “RIM’s tablet can now be had for as low as $399, before taxes.”
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s see: $399 for a failed device with a severe case of AppLack™ and a screen that’s just 45% of Apple’s iPad, or $100 more for an actual iPad. Not a tough choice. Only the clinically insane would consider a dead-end PlayBook, which explains why both of RIM’s half-CEOs are toting one around.
The Canadian Press reports, “RIM’s Playbook has struggled against the popularity of Apple’s iPad… The company shipped about 200,000 PlayBooks in its most recent quarter, about half of what analysts had been expecting.”
MacDailyNews Take: Shipped ≠ sold.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Coco amuck” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Amazon’s tablet is a ‘pretty poor stopgap’ that looks a lot like RIM’s PlayBook failure – September 27, 2011
Beleaguered RIM drastically cuts production of PlayBook flop – September 21, 2011
RIM half-CEOs: What did you know and when did you know it? – June 20, 2011
Shipped ≠ sold.
Phantom profits ≠ real profits.
7″ screen ≠ 10″ screen.
Hell yeah, the PlayBook is DOA. Next they’ll be selling it for $299 come November 15 when the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet starts shipping.
RIM is in a no-win situation, being attacked from all sides. They’ve had to cede the high end to the iPad and will be squeezed at the low end by the Kindle and forthcoming Android 7″ tablets that’ll probably sell for $299.
Aaaaaand Bingo!
Now at Best Buy for $299
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20113156-64/blackberry-playbook-on-sale-at-best-buy-for-$299/
Kindle fire is $199, by the way. So in every sense of the world, Playbook is dead.
I’ve had both versions of the iPad and am still very much enjoying my iPad 2. However, I have to admit that the Playbook seemed as though it would actually put up a decent challenge to the iPad 2……………..until I read that it doesn’t have a native email app. Are you kidding me??? The feature that made Blackberry the leader in business mobile products is the very feature that Blackberry left out of the OS??? A feature that NO OTHER mobile market company left out. I’m all for competition and (out of fear of them becoming lazy) hope Apple never gets to the point where other companies stop trying, but maybe we need some NEW competition in the market. The current competition seems to be completely out of focus. No email app on a Blackberry……….yeah right!!!
I’m sure that was because they were afraid of selling one less BlackBerry if it had email on it.
Not to mention you still have to have a crackberry to do half of the things you want to do . . . like say email.
Amateur hour is almost over.
Every time one of these companies makes their marketing message “thanks, Apple, we’ll take it from here” they crash and burn. Remember HP’s “number one plus”?
Will they ever learn?
well we know what some of the big items will be for the Black Friday sales in November.
Shipped > Sold, due to expanded retail channel.
$399 and it can’t even do email? Are you out of your mind!
No apps, why would anyone want to spend that kind of money on something that lacks so much?
Yet the fire sales of these “dead” devices will be breathlessly reported in next quarter’s market share statistics, and will confirm analysts assertions that Apple is losing its grip on the tablet market.
exactly.
May I suggest to RIM: $99.00.
That is the going rate. They can then spin that into overwhelming customer demand…Yes?
😀
At $99, shipped will equal sold.
I had baught the Playbook back in May and tried it out for a few months. From a hardware perspective it was top of the line, some features such as the stereo speakers and mic, the 1080p HD camera and overall solid construction. The only problem was the not so smooth touch response and the overall app selection, even under Android Player. I decided to sell it and got myself the iPad 2! What most people still don’t seem to understand is that Apple is a software company, that makes it’s own hardware. The only company I know that developes software with one major focus, ergonomics! Even the cheap kindle won’t be able to come close to Apple’s incredible user friendly and intuitive software.