BlackBerry PlayBook to undercut iPad pricing?

November 10, 2010 By Geoff Duncan

Reports have BlackBerry maker Research in Motion looking to beat the Apple iPad's $499 initial price point when its PlayBook goes on sale next year.

It looks like RIM sees the Apple iPad as the primary competition for its forthcoming PlayBook BlackBerry tablet: a report in BusinessWeek has a RIM executive saying the PlayBook will cost less than $500 when it reaches consumers in the early part of 2011.

Apple’s entry-level iPad is available for $499, and comes with 16 GB of memory and Wi-Fi connectivity, with prices ranging up to $829 for a version with 64 GB of onboard storage and 3G mobile connectivity. RIM’s PlayBook will be based around a 7-inch touchscreen display (compared to the 10-inch display in all Apple iPads), and initial versions of the PlayBook won’t offer 3G mobile connectivity either: instead, they’ll tether up with users’ BlackBerry phones, making the proposition of taking the PlayBook mobile a multi-device, high-cost affair. (See Digital Trends’s comparison of PlayBook and iPad specs.)

However, by the time RIM’s PlayBook device comes to market, Apple’s iPad will have been available for sale for roughly a year—and that means the primary competition for the PlayBook isn’t likely to be the current iPad, but whatever Apple has up its sleeve for the device’s next iteration. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has argued that would-be competitors in the tablet market are focusing on 7-inch displays in part because going with less expensive, smaller displays lets them, better compete with the iPad’s price point; however, mobile tablets like the Android-based Galaxy Tab are also supported by subsidies from mobile operators. Of course, RIM is also hoping to differentiate the PlayBook on a technology basis: the PlayBook tablet will offer support for Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR technologies, neither of which are likely to appear in iPads or other iOS devices anytime soon.

Showing 3 comments

Kevin J. Shutt at 10:54am 10th November 2010 I disagree. RIM certainly has an uphill battle, but have you compared the specs of the iPad versus PlayBook? Like Apple, RIM has its loyalists and the former has larger numbers, IMO. But, then there's all the people in the middle who are loyal to neither and will focus instead on price, form and function. Plus there's the Android tablets and all these choices, though their growth rates are slower, will show that iPad isn't the first and last word in tablet computer. I spent a month on an iPad and found it to be nothing more than a bigger iPhone. PlayBook, however, if marketing propaganda is to be believed, won't feel like "just a bigger BlackBerry." It's bringing a whole new OS to market for RIM, which us BB fanboys (admittedly I am, but am also open minded) hope will trickle down/carry over to BlackBerry smartphones and the OS we've been waiting for since iPhone came and rocked our world, for which, personally, I am thankful.
@jjvillaescusa at 10:24am 10th November 2010 I believe that they will have competition among the "lower" end product but not to MAC, they have like the previous comment waited too long. Plus with the update coming out and I'm sure there is a new iPad right around the corner. This reminds me of Windows mobile 7 coming out now. -www.GetTimeWebDesign.com
Jason Chen at 9:56am 10th November 2010 It has "too little too late" written all over the wall.