Put it down to poor shipping figures or the winter sales, but the price of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has been drastically reduced across the board at UK retailers, right down to £169. Will we see the equivalent of the HP TouchPad firesale all over again?
The BlackBerry PlayBook, which went on sale last summer, met to tepid reviews, and has been steadily dropping in price since then. Now though, it’s had a huge cut: the 16GB model has been dropped from £399 right down to £169 at Carphone Warehouse, with the 32GB and 64GB models seeing similar drops to £199 and £329 respectively.
Other UK retailers, such as Amazon, are also stocking the 16GB model for under £200, and RIM has enacted a similar price drop to $299 (£191) before tax in the US for every capacity model (Yes, really – expect the 64GB models to go first).
The move echoes HP’s £99 TouchPad firesale, which followed its announcement that it was pulling out of webOS hardware last year. All the remaining stock was quickly snapped up, and the device is now enjoying a second lease of life as an Android tablet.
At this price point, the seven-inch BlackBerry PlayBook, which was recently hacked to support the Android Market app store, might well prove popular with bargain hunters too. But RIM could be playing a dangerous game here: by dumping its stock of tablets, it runs the risk of admitting its new software for mobiles which is based on the same QNX operating system as the PlayBook, BlackBerry Ten, is a failure. And with almost a year to go before it arrives, that could put it in a tight position indeed.
Will you be buying a bargain BlackBerry PlayBook? Rather wait for the similarly sized Kindle Fire? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
