RIM Says PlayBook Price is Holiday Promotion Not Price Reduction

 

With select retailers in Canada and the US discounting the BlackBerry PlayBook many are wondering if this will be done across the board. Right now RIM’s key launch partner, Best Buy in the US, has not discounted the device which makes many of us wonder what the story is. Turns out RIM told the BoyGenius that this is just a holiday promotion “intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook.”

Full wording from RIM below:

The official retail price of BlackBerry PlayBook has not changed.  However, as mentioned on the Q2 earnings call on Sept. 15th,  we have a number promotional plans in place for the fall with our retail partners that are intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook.  We are already starting to see some of these promotions being implemented in the form of instant rebates and gift cards within the consumer channel, and expect these promotions to continue into the holiday season.  The BlackBerry PlayBook has established itself as a high-performance tablet, and we are confident that these activities, along with the upcoming software upgrade, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, will help to generate an increase in demand and sell through of the BlackBerry PlayBook over the upcoming months.

The official retail price of BlackBerry PlayBook has not changed.  However, as mentioned on the Q2 earnings call on Sept. 15th,  we have a number promotional plans in place for the fall with our retail partners that are intended to drive sell-through and increased adoption of the BlackBerry PlayBook.  We are already starting to see some of these promotions being implemented in the form of instant rebates and gift cards within the consumer channel, and expect these promotions to continue into the holiday season.  The BlackBerry PlayBook has established itself as a high-performance tablet, and we are confident that these activities, along with the upcoming software upgrade, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, will help to generate an increase in demand and sell through of the BlackBerry PlayBook over the upcoming months.

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RIM Issues Statement on 4G PlayBooks – LTE Is Where its at!

RIM has issued a statement on the news earlier today that Sprint had cancelled the BlackBerry PlayBook 4G WiMax variant. It seems like we were right earlier that RIM has focused on LTE instead of WiMax since even WiMax carriers have given up on WiMax. Here is what RIM has to say:

RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE. We remain excited and committed to delivering innovative and powerful 4G tablets to the US market together with our carrier partners. Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already underway and we plan to enter labs for network certifications in the US and other international markets this fall.

Any questions? Essentially that means a Verizon 4G PlayBook with an AT&T one probably coming when AT&T gets their LTE network up later this year.

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