[BlackberryTorcher]

I was wondering this today. Since BB10 is supposedly coming to playbook, wouldn't that increase the usability and thus appeal of the playbook? What do you all think?

[bambinoitaliano]

It does not make sense for RIM to relaunch a money losing device with a bad reputation. There is no money to be make here. If anything RIM should launch the LTE version to US and the rest of the world after BB10 is in the market. The current PB owners who took advantage of the fire sales luck out!

[hreiner1]

not to sound negative but .....
the life of the PB will fade away, no update there
the PB LTE version may work if it runs on 3G, HSPA, HSPA+, and LTE and is unlocked, and is sold at a reasonable price like $299 for a 32GB
It would need a real USB port, plus a micro-card slot,
This model would interest me, as I could run it with various prepaid data SIM cards in different countries
any future BB-OS 10 tablets will be sold by 3rd parties, not by RIM

thats the way I see it

[axllebeer]

The price of the PlayBook will never go up as it is now. A future hardware release I'm sure would me more expensive, but not the current PlayBook.

[ibpluto]

I doubt it would go up. But I do think it will be harder to find

[omniusovermind]

The price of the PlayBook will never go up as it is now. A future hardware release I'm sure would me more expensive, but not the current PlayBook.

I'm 100% confident this is how it'll be done. I was considering getting one more PB last week but I decided to hold off until Jan 30th to see if they announce a newer model coming. CES and MWC 2013 are also both just around the corner and after those are over you pretty much know everything that's going to be launched the rest of the year.

[CairnsRock]

They are not making them any more, so it will be supply and demand for the remaining store inventories and ebay sales.

[el31415]

Price will go up in the 2nd hand market ebay,craiglist...but only a couple of Hamilton.

[bay1902]

dunno, pcworld have shot their price up to £150 today, after 4 months at 129, then 124 this past week a hike is a hike. you never know, some retailers 'may' decide to increase on the back of bb10, especially if its a hit

[edendave]

Interestingly, PB 64gb was £124.99 in PcWorld in UK on Saturday. Today it's £149.99
This wasn't some branch manager's mistake - it was the instore and online price.
I bought a PB on Saturday,and also picked up a rapid charging pod for £4.99, so one very happy man

[RubberChicken76]

My predictions: Thorsten will burn through his inventory of the WiFI 1-GHZ MODEL at retail. The 1.5 GHZ model will typically be a direct, niche product but won't get a lot of effort.

Maybe a new version will come at a higher price once it gets BlackBerry 10, but I'm skeptical.

On the PlayBook's rep, I don't think it's as bad as some might think. The Storm was a device that caused people to leave BlackBerry forever. In the case of the PlayBook, I'd best most of the 2 million owners got it at a good price when 2.0 was out. It might have a negative rep among early adopters and the tech press, though I imagine the later adopters are generally happier with it.

I understand both sides

[omniusovermind]

They are not making them any more

I must've missed this news

[RubberChicken76]

They are not making them any more, so it will be supply and demand for the remaining store inventories and ebay sales.

To be accurate:

- The are *sold out* of 16 GB models
- They are still manufacturing and shipping 32 GB and 64 GB WiFi models
- They are producing 1.5 GHZ 32GB LTE and 3G+ models for some markets

[CairnsRock]

To be accurate:

- The are *sold out* of 16 GB models
- They are still manufacturing and shipping 32 GB and 64 GB WiFi models
- They are producing 1.5 GHZ 32GB LTE and 3G+ models for some markets

Do you know for sure that they are still making the 32/64 wifi models? I admit that I don't know. I just find it hard to believe that RIM or any company would take a write down on inventory, then go and make more to incur additional losses. The stock holders would not like that.

[Broxster]

Do you know for sure that they are still making the 32/64 wifi models? I admit that I don't know. I just find it hard to believe that RIM or any company would take a write down on inventory, then go and make more to incur additional losses. The stock holders would not like that.

16gb are back in stock here in the uk @ £99.99...i saw 64gb models instore today with november 2012 build dates on the box....as said the price is up to £149.99

[F2]

To be accurate:

- The are *sold out* of 16 GB models
- They are still manufacturing and shipping 32 GB and 64 GB WiFi models
- They are producing 1.5 GHZ 32GB LTE and 3G+ models for some markets

As someone else noted, no one is sure of that. From news ages ago, they had stopped the manufacturing process. Now they may have assembled stock sitting around waiting to be boxed (which some think is the date on the box - box date and not really a manufacturing date) or they may have an inventory of parts of are assembling them. I'm not sure that Rim has been clear on any of this. Of course they are making the cellular enabled ones somewhere, so maybe they are still doing something very active.

[Broxster]

As someone else noted, no one is sure of that. From news ages ago, they had stopped the manufacturing process. Now they may have assembled stock sitting around waiting to be boxed (which some think is the date on the box - box date and not really a manufacturing date) or they may have an inventory of parts of are assembling them. I'm not sure that Rim has been clear on any of this. Of course they are making the cellular enabled ones somewhere, so maybe they are still doing something very active.

I set up 2 for a friend before christmas....neither required the last big OS update so i don't think they have been just laying around.

[taz323]

Or maybe they will keep the price the same to increase the sales on the phone.

[Puz_zled]

I'm pretty sure the 32 and 64GB are being built but more on a just in time or built to order. The 16's are probably what's left of inventory and have already been written down, so these sales now go straight to the cash balance. On a more strategic note, once BB10 is out wouldn't it make sense as a longer term way of rolling out the hardware cycle to lead the specs out with upgraded hardware on the Playbook and then catch up on the next refresh cycle with the phone hardware? You can more easily engineer all of the upgraded components into the larger form factor so it always has the most computing power (laptop replacement) while phones,which require greater shrinkage of the components to occur first but emphasize the mobility and portability of slightly less computing power than tablets, would upgrade to the same specs as tablets 1 gen later. So it would be like desktops vs, laptops vs tablets vs. Phones in descending order of computing ability with BlackBerry competing only in the mobile formats; phones, tablets and potentially, laptops.

[BlackberryTorcher]

Price will go up in the 2nd hand market ebay,craiglist...but only a couple of Hamilton.

This is what I meant. If it shoots up extremely high, could become a lucrative 2nd hand market for it. I use craigslist as supplementary income so that's why I asked. I'm always looking for opportunities to make some extra moula lol.

[RubberChicken76]

Do you know for sure that they are still making the 32/64 wifi models? I admit that I don't know. I just find it hard to believe that RIM or any company would take a write down on inventory, then go and make more to incur additional losses. The stock holders would not like that.

There were people with PlayBooks bearing a 'manufactured Nov 2012 date" on the forums.

[RubberChicken76]

As someone else noted, no one is sure of that. From news ages ago, they had stopped the manufacturing process.

No. A journalist speculated from 'sources' that they had stopped production. Let's not mix rumours with confirmed facts.

It could possibly be that they haven't done much in a while. But for god's sakes people, stop with presenting theories (yours or a journalists) as though it's a 'fact' until you hear it from RIM.

[travisp11]

Hey guys, I finally gave in and bought a BB Playbook 32GB model from Amazon.com here in the USA for $177 USD about a week ago. The prices on them had been dropping until BB10 was announced. I've noticed that the closer and closer RIM had come to announcing the OS, that the prices on the Playbook have slowly been rising. I've been following the prices on the playbook for about two months and the 32GB model bottomed out around $165, but the 64GB model hit a low of $209. After the BB10 support for Playbook announcement, the price jumped almost $20 overnight up to $226 on 1-31-2013 on the 64GB model. And for the first time in two months, there are low quantity notices coming up on Amazon. Coincidence? Maybe, I mean many items that I see for sale on Amazon have prices that fluctuate but since I had seen little to no change over the last two months until now, it makes me wonder. Like I said, I'm happy I bought one when I did (I'm sure I missed some great Black Friday prices on them.) But when you look at the overall package you're getting, not to mention the build quality and robust specs, I'd say it meets or exceeds the majority of hardware out there on the market today but blows them out of the park with the dirt cheap price.