[louzer]

With 2.0 right around the corner and with the recent Playbook discounts about to expire, I'm wondering what RIM's strategy is. I wonder if the sale will actually end or if RIM will keep the prices until the current stock sells out.

Given the talk about the 3G Playbook set to launch somewhere between March and this summer, I assume that the current stock of wifi-only Playbooks will not return to full retail price. I assume that the new Playbooks will start with a price lower than iPad prices but offer the option of being subsidised by a carrier contract. If this is the case, I assume that current wifi-only devices will need to continue to be priced at a discount in order to have them sell. I don't know how many would sell with a new version on the horizon unless there's incentive.

Also, it seems strange to me to have RIM putting out a major new version of an OS that won't have a new device to run on for a few months. Maybe they are sitting on more Playbooks in inventory than we are aware of.