“Does $199 sound like too much for the BlackBerry Playbook this holiday season? ” Joanna Stern asks for The Verge.
“RIM seems to think so, but only for its employees,” Stern reports. “According to multiple sources, the 16GB 7-inch tablet is now available to RIM employees through a special corporate portal for $99.”
Stern reports, “We have also been told that employees can only order up to eight models.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why does beleaguered RIM hate their employees so?
Related articles:
Amateur Hour is Over: Best Buy cancels BlackBerry PlayBook orders, pulls listings – November 28, 2011
Beleaguered RIM vows to keep Adobe Flash alive on moribund BlackBerry PlayBook – November 10, 2011
Beleaguered RIM offers ‘Buy 2, get 1 free’ PlayBooks – October 28, 2011
RIM slashes prices, PlayBooks continue selling like snotcakes – October 27, 2011
Retailers slash price tag on RIM’s tiny-screen Playbook flop – September 29, 2011
Beleaguered RIM drastically cuts production of PlayBook flop – September 21, 2011
RUMOR: RIM BlackBerry PlayBook sales miss targets by over 90% at major retailer – May 20, 2011
$99 is not nearly enough to get me to use one of those things, they should offer at least $200 to anyone that is willing to suffer with that thing.
Oh, wait a minute…
Oh that’s just wrong!
Let the liquidation begin.
dogfood.
Another failed tablet wanting to be like iPad.
$99 seems to be the magic price point for any tablet that is NOT an iPad.
The big question is whether they’ll be able to clear inventory this way. It will essentially pit company loyalty against common sense. Is RIM’s staff loyalty that powerful? I’d be surprised if it were.
RIM will have to rebrand the PlayBook as Chum because it seems to be sold like dog food.
““We have also been told that employees can only order up to eight models.””
Huh? RIM limits their purchase to 8? THey should limit it to one to keep it less painful.
At The Verge, some commenters complained that the article’s not only wrong, but a muddle. More like a sequence of Unnamed Sources playing a game of “telephone”.
http://damonpoole.blogspot.com/2009/07/traditional-development-game-of.html
Also, in a cost-savings measure, RIM has printed the purchase receipts on the back of pink-slips.
Only another twenty nine more warehouses to go. RIMs next move will be to give away a PlayBook with a every BB purchase. At this rate they’ll clear back inventory by end of 2015.
Why waste 99 dollars. Save it until you have enough for the real thing. iPad or even a refurbished one.
I don’t know the inner workings of RIM but I lived in Waterloo ON (RIM’s hometown) during the beginning and heydays of RIM. The tragedy is that such talent could be so terribly squandered by the arrogance of Lazaretus (sp?) and Basille (sp?).
If L & B are one-trick ponies it’s too bad they couldn’t see it and give their employees a chance to innovate. After all it’s the employees who will suffer in RIM’s apparently inevitable death.
$99 is still awfully expensive for a coaster!
“employees can only order up to eight models” … Now that’s what I call an OPTIMISTIC Company!!! What would you do with 8 BB Playbooks? Use 1, and have 7 back ups?
Beleaguered? Again? I love this site, but don’t you guys own a thesaurus?
Please. First, beleaguered isn’t quite the meaning you’re looking for. Second, it shows a distinct lack of imagination to use the same adjective every time you modify a given word.
Add a little variety, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble. Thanks.
No no. Repetition is part of the fun, part of the fact that this SOS keeps on happening over and over and over. Beleaguered A. Beleaguered B. Beleaguered C. It’s part of pointing out the rather sad nature of the wannabe biznizziz who consistently trip and fall when attempting to imitate, versus out-innovate, Apple.
Whereas, commentators like like you and me provide entertainment by instilling variety in our snarkiness.
If you’ve followed this site for long, you’d know that “beleaguered” is MDN’s middle name. It’s why this site exists: to demonstrate that entrepreneurship exercised with energy, optimism, and daring is the life force of capitalism, and can overcome all misguided and pathetic attempts by self-appointed business analysts to cynically manipulate stock markets for their own gain, holding to their bosoms what they believe to be their arcane secret, namely that consumers are foolish lemmings, giving them the upper hand in trading. And that “beleaguered” is the in-joke that identifies fellow travelers.
I think.
Absoletely Brilliant …Janeshepard You Made My Day
I Think
For those that have been watching MDN’s blog from the beginning (like including Jane Shepard), the “beleaguered” notion recalls the time when every so called “analyst” and “technical correspondent” in the nation was writing off Apple as “beleaguered”. This is MDN’s way of getting back at all those fools that were just copying each others stories and perpetuated the line that Apple was going down. Because of sheer laziness many didn’t realize that Apple was working with laser sharp focus on a turn around. Others clearly had an agenda (see Jane’s comment).
Hmm!
$99!
Deja vu much?
Shades of HP’s OtherPad FAILure fire sale.
(o_0)
How thoughtful and generous of RIM to offer their employee that kind of price. Its a Thanks Giving and I don’t see Apple doing it. Merry Christmas RIM !
Apple didn’t have to lay off 10.5 per cent of its workforce, as RIM had to do. Merry Christmas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/technology/round-of-layoffs-to-start-at-research-in-motion.html
Enough already- F*CK OFF TROLL!!!