RIM’s PlayBook cut to $199 for holiday season – now will it sell?

November 22, 2011 By Trevor Mogg

For the holiday season at least, the price of RIM's PlayBook tablet has been slashed to $199. That's the same as Amazon's Kindle Fire. Which one would you go for?

Research In Motion announced via Twitter this week that for a limited time only, its BlackBerry 16GB PlayBook tablet will be selling for $199. When it was launched in April it cost $499.

The tablet will be available for the new price at Best Buy, Wireless Giant, Office Depot, Radio Shack and Walmart, although at the time of writing only Best Buy was listing it for $199. There’s no word on when the offer will end (let alone begin).

According to the Wall Street Journal, some analysts believe that, as with Amazon’s recently released $199 Kindle Fire device, the new low price of the PlayBook means RIM will be selling it at a loss, “based on the costs of components and manufacturing.”

Amazon plans to recoup those losses through sales in its online store, to which the Fire is connected. RIM, on the other hand, will probably just be happy to shift a few of its devices, which have so far failed to gain any traction with tablet buyers.

The Ontario-based company sold half a million PlayBooks in the first three months following its launch, though this dropped to just 200,000 in its most recent quarter. Apple, in contrast, said it sold 11 million iPads in its most recent quarter.

The PlayBook received mixed reviews when it was unveiled earlier this year. It was criticized for lacking a native email client and instant messaging app, and though it was hoped these issues would soon be addressed by a long-awaited OS update, RIM recently announced that it was postponing the release of the update until early next year.

On top of that, its BlackBerry App World store is poorly stocked compared to rivals such as Apple’s App Store and Android Market.

In six months the PlayBook has failed to make an impact in the tablet market, though the company has stuck by it, with co-chief executive Jim Balsillie saying only last month that RIM was still 100 percent committed to the struggling device.

If, however, RIM fails to shift any at this latest price, there may be only one thing for it. Remember what happened to the Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad?

Showing 12 comments

maxmz02 at 5:44pm 23rd November 2011 Playbok start in Feb. 2010, 9900 start 3.5 years ago, slow like old man, like I said 3 years ago, RIM is old before really grow up.Strange culture in RIM, and this culture generate self-destroy political environment.In RIM if a new hired person figure out major problem and introduce efficient approach, both manager and his buddy group member will proof their wrong approach works. just like someone point out driving a car is right way, pushing a car is wrong way, then both manager and his buddy group member will hate you, and proof that 3 person can also move the car by pushing it. cheating email will be sent to some vice president, saying like: see, the car moving, pushing a car is a natural part of the process.It is very strange company culture and strange company political environment, it promote stealing and cheating skill. RIM’s management may be a typical instance in MBA course.This culture deny or steal hardworking team members’ contribution/innovation, generate strange political environment, destroy RIM.July 7th 2008 when I start to work in RIM ID group, I found RIM’s CAD skill in ID group is still in low efficient level of 10 years ago, like ID changes can’t be regenerated in mechanical part, so I point out the problem and introduce efficient topdown process, to make sure top level adjustment will always be regenerated in down level.But the RIM’s CAD experts wrote email to 3 VPs and successfully make them believe that—–whenever top level adjust, continuously and manually audit final parts is a natural part, means low efficient is a natural part in every RIM’s device design program.They abuse their power layoff the only driver, and use 3 person pushing the car, they will keep “continuously and manually audit final parts”.“continuously and manually audit final parts” is the mark of not qualified for the position, but in RIM, strange thing happened, they like not qualified person around them, and they are affraid of qualified person in their group, so that no one will point out their wrong approach, so we all know why RIM low efficient, why RIM is in a strange political environment.
Adam Krant at 4:47pm 23rd November 2011 nope lol
Cheyne Rushing at 12:49pm 23rd November 2011 Not without a decent built-in Android player.
Kyle Newton at 4:38am 23rd November 2011 Seems like too little too late. The Kindle Fire is going to sell like hot cakes and has many advantages over this for the same price.
Matt Bolt at 4:30am 23rd November 2011 aka FIRE SALE!!
Scott Aron Bloom at 4:28am 23rd November 2011 My Xoom beats the iPad 2 every time... I get 10+ hours from it watching videos and using it at the office..
Smooth S at 4:27am 23rd November 2011 nope
Jamie Bustamante at 4:23am 23rd November 2011 RIM should have died years ago honestly.
Samuel Jacob Chatman at 4:15am 23rd November 2011 The kindle file isn't even a real tablet. Most people expect it to be like an iPad and they will be sorely disappointed.
Lorne Hammond at 4:12am 23rd November 2011 No.. email / calendar still not available, few apps, RIM is sinking due to its arrogance...The kindle fire will sell like mad this christmas - for everyone else, theres ios and android.
Jamie Bustamante at 4:12am 23rd November 2011 Simple answer, no.
Mike March at 4:10am 23rd November 2011 When considering the purchase of any new tablet device...check how much battery run time per charge you can expect ( iPad will probably outperform them all )