newegg.com and staples.com both have the PB available for immediate delivery at full 499/599/699 pricing.
bestbuy.com and store availability shows no stock but do show a full retail price on their website.
According to US FTC rules, stores must sell products at full price for a reasonable number of days before advertising former price comparisons. What these stores are now doing is to establish the 'full' retail price.
IMO these stores will have a 'sale' in a couple of weeks, advertising the full former retail price. This will be just a couple of weeks before and in time for Christmas selling.
Well, I guess Rim figures that everyone who did not get a cheap pb will see their friends', mothers', brothers', co-workers', etc's and go "I have to have that at any cost!" We shall see....
newegg.com and staples.com both have the PB available for immediate delivery at full 499/599/699 pricing.
bestbuy.com and store availability shows no stock but do show a full retail price on their website.
According to US FTC rules, stores must sell products at full price for a reasonable number of days before advertising former price comparisons. What these stores are now doing is to establish the 'full' retail price.
IMO these stores will have a 'sale' in a couple of weeks, advertising the full former retail price. This will be just a couple of weeks before and in time for Christmas selling.
interesting! .. Hope you are right and the Playbooks are reduced so they can take advantage of the Christmas period!! .. and get more amazing Playbooks in the hands of people! .... then February 2.0 will be epic!! ...
I agree. There will most likely be a return of sale pricing prior to Christmas. I'm thinking about picking up another one just to keep hooked up to the big screen.
The $199 for the 16gb made 3 friends of mine that were naysayers get 16gb PlayBooks. IMO Rim should continue to offer to offer the PlayBooks at or around the $199-299 range for the base model even after the 2.0 update. The PlayBook (as good of a device as it really is) might be hard to push at regular price until the app eco-system is somewhat developed. For now the primary focus should be to get units off their warehouse and post their updated sales constantly to further entice devs to make apps for this platform. When the next gen PlayBook comes out it'll be somewhat easier to sell at full price so long as the apps are there to expose the strengths of the platform.
It is an uphill battle for Rim for the short-term. Option 1: encourage retailers to sell at reg. price and risk not selling as much units (no exposure, bad ratings and low dev incentives to make apps for Qnx)... Option 2: continue the sales trend and reap the benefits of all the above mentioned cons turning into pros by producing the opposite results when 2.0 comes out and when the second gen PlayBook is released.
