Hasta La Gadget!

Nov 10

Blackberry Boss: Playbook will Cost ‘Under $500′

Posted in: BlackBerry, flash, playbook, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili

Blackberry’s Playbook tablet will go on sale in the first quarter of next year for “under $500″, according to Blackberry co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said that the 7-inch tablet “will be very competitively priced.”

$500 seems to be the limit for non-Apple tablets, and if this is a real price and not just a spoiler to stop be-suited business-types from buying an iPad in the next few months, then it will join the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the marketplace for undersized tablets. This $500 is actually a surprise, as Blackberry is selling the Playbook as a business machine, and we were expecting a high price to match.

The trouble is, $500 is still too much. How can you charge essentially the same price as Apple does for the iPad, but for a machine with a half-sized screen? Worse, Blackberry isn’t exactly known for it’s third-party apps, and choosing the horrible Adobe Air runtime won’t help.

The Playbook might support Flash, but that is increasingly irrelevant as more sites switch to where the money is and serve iPad-friendly HTML5 video.

It’s getting hard to see who will buy the Playbook. And remember: by the time it actually limps into stores, the iPad 2 will be either available or imminent.

RIM to Sell Tablet for Less Than $500 to Take on IPad [Bloomberg]

See Also: