If you’ve held out on purchasing a RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet until the prices came down, your wait is just about over. The prices at retailers in Canada and in the U.S. have begun to slide down below the MSRP’s of $499, $599 and $699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi models.
Starting today at Staples the 16GB Wi-Fi BlackBerry PlayBook has been dropped down to $249 after a $100.00 mail-in rebate, at the register you need to pay $349.99. That price is only going to last from today (9/25/2011) through next Saturday (8/1/2011). The rebate of $100 will come in the form of a Visa Prepaid card, and there is a limit of 5 rebates per household on this deal.
he price drops are indicative of the PlayBook’s low sales numbers, but that should worry you if you think that RIM will do what HP did to the HP TouchPad and pull the plug. RIM actually still has a big software update in the pipeline for the PlayBook, BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0, and the company is still actively reaching out to developers for more PlayBook applications.
A 16GB Wi-Fi BlackBerry PlayBook tablet boasts the following main features:
- 1GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core processor
- 1GB RAM
- 16GB capacity
- Multi-touch capacitive screen 7? LCD display, 1024 x 600 screen resolution
- 3MP high-definition forward-facing camera; 5MP high-definition rear-facing camera
- Micro USB and Micro HDMI ports
- 1080p HD video; H.264, MPEG-4, WMV HDMI video output
- Network access using your BlackBerry smartphone as a modem
- Wirelessly connect to your BlackBerry smartphone for real-time access to: Email, calendar, address book, task list and BBM
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- BlackBerry Tablet Operating System, powered by QNX technology
- Supports POSIX OS, SMP, Open GL, BlackBerry 6, WebKit, Adobe Flash, Java and Adobe Mobile AIR
- Charging cable included
- Dimensions: 5.1?(H) x 7.6?(W) x 0.4?(D)
- Weight: 0.9 lb.
- 1 year limited warranty
