Retailers in the US and Canada recently started slashing the price of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets with instant rebates and gift cards. These brought the price of a 16GB tablet down from $499 to $299. But maybe you shouldn’t get too used to the new price: Research in Motion says these are just promotions.
In other words, the base price of a PlayBook tablet is still technically $499. RIM is hoping to drum up additional interest in the tablet in response to sluggish sales. But at some point the promotion could end and the tablet could go back to full price.
On the other hand, if the $299 price proves more successful — and if RIM is still able to turn a profit at that price — maybe RIM executives could decide to keep the promotional pricing in place in order to move more tablets.
The company also plans to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 soon. The software update will add native email, calendar, and contact apps to the BlackBerry tablet, as well as the ability to run some Google Android applications.
I went and looked at one, and still couldn’t justify the price. No memory expansion slot, and only a promise of an update for some of the most needed features? Deal killers in an increasingly crowded market.
Lets also hope they bring out the 4g version with the 2.0 software updates.