[adrenaline_x]

Selling the device at cost or below cost would work.

Xbox 360 did this and with a lower price increased their popularity vs the ps3. The ps3 had better specs and a blu-ray player but me and my friends all ended up on the 360.. mainly because i got on board first and convinced them which was easy when they saw xbox live and cod 4 online


If they can make money or cover the loss in licensing of apps over the next year this could be a good strategy.

[sf49ers]

Amazon model is a make or break thing for them, they might already be taking a hit on the margins (could even be selling their tablet at a loss) and I don't know how much they are going to make on the content sales after all the licensing costs. People would like a tablet to consume content from everywhere and not be restricted, even people owning Ipad have options like netflix, hulu, amazon apart from the itunes store and I doubt if Apple is making any money on the itunes and all it's super margins are coming from the hardware sales. The Xbox or PS3 are a different ball game altogether where there are only few niche players in their space, content is guaranteed to be bought, and the life of the hardware is pretty long (5 years atleast where a manufacturer can milk some cash even if they sold it for a loss upfront ).

To me it is like HP disrupted the tablet market and Amazon destroyed it for everyone including itself.

[malanis5]

If I new this I would of wait to save 200 bucks but oh well. Time is right if your interested in getting a playbook.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

i feel a little cheated that i paid $499 two months ago. If i knew a price cut was coming so soon i would have waited. I wonder if people that bought the playbook a day or a week before the price cut would qualify for a partial refund. Still feel a little cheated. maybe the feeling won't be so heavy if i can upgrade my 9700 to a 9900 when the 9900 gets a price cut.

[anon(1049620)]

Here's my dilemma. I can order the Playbook now and hope for the best with OS 2.0. However, if it doesn't deliver what I'm looking for, I'll have no recourse (14 day return period). If I wait until devcon to hear about OS 2.0, prices may be back to normal, as this seems like an inventory flush.

As well, if I purchase now, and they release an upgraded model (or there's some benefit to buying a "new" 2.0 PB) I'll have missed out on that as well.

What are your thoughts? Realistically, I can wait, but is it worth the $200 risk?

[anon(1049620)]

i feel a little cheated that i paid $499 two months ago. If i knew a price cut was coming so soon i would have waited. I wonder if people that bought the playbook a day or a week before the price cut would qualify for a partial refund. Still feel a little cheated. maybe the feeling won't be so heavy if i can upgrade my 9700 to a 9900 when the 9900 gets a price cut.

Oh, and yes, RIM screwed you and several other people with this one. I stand by my opinion that they should be offering incentives, discounts, or some other form of compensation for PB owners who purchased theirs early based on the news that "updates" would come during the Summer. Free accessories or a gift card of one's choice to Staples, Best Buy, etc..

[barnyr]

I really don't think RIM owes anyone a rebate or refund. Auto makers discount slow moving inventory throughout the year, so do other manufacturers. I didn't buy a PB at $500 because I didn't see a need for it. At $300 I think it is worth trying, maybe it will be useful for me. I bought one yesterday from the 1daysale site. I am looking forward to trying it out next week. I will not feel cheated if/when the price drops again in a few months.

[Nurees]

bought my 32 GB on 9-10....called best buy and they flat out refuse to give me the $200 adjustment...manager is giving me BS that they had their over ride rights taken away...

[hreiner1]

where did you buy that one?

[BBMINI]

Here's my dilemma. I can order the Playbook now and hope for the best with OS 2.0. However, if it doesn't deliver what I'm looking for, I'll have no recourse (14 day return period). If I wait until devcon to hear about OS 2.0, prices may be back to normal, as this seems like an inventory flush.

As well, if I purchase now, and they release an upgraded model (or there's some benefit to buying a "new" 2.0 PB) I'll have missed out on that as well.

What are your thoughts? Realistically, I can wait, but is it worth the $200 risk?

These were pretty much the same things I wondered about, and I decided to buy now mostly as a hedge against the price going back up if OS 2.0 comes out and people like it. From the few things I've read about the update, it sounds like it'll bring some very worthwhile changes so I figured demand might rise at that point. Also, I figured $299 is a reasonable price for something like this if I was already considering the NOOK color at $250 and if Amazon's bargain basement subsidized price is $199 for a tablet with fewer features than the PB. And if the PB price remains at $299 permanently as a result of HP's $99 clearance and competition from Amazon, then I haven't paid more than anyone else for a PB since I personally don't think PB pricing will realistically drop much more any time in the immediate future.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[1425956]

I called my local Best Buy a few minutes ago and they have 1 64 gig model left. She stated the 16 gig's were back-ordered and her computer showed there were no 32 gig's ordered to replenish their inventory.

[1425956]

Wow! My local Office Max and Staples are sold out of all of them as well! I hate they are sold out because I want to pick one up tomorrow, but I am glad to see them selling at this price point. If RIM can get a lot more Play Books in peoples hands, maybe the increased exposure will attract more app developers....And more BlackBerry phone sales...

[anon(1049620)]

What's interesting to me is that until now I haven't really been very interested in buying a PB since the CB reviews were mixed at best and I didn't think I'd use it that much. But I'm now planning to buy one due to:
- the temporary (as far as we know) price drop
- the promise of significant improvements that evidently will be included in the coming software upgrades

Don't get me wrong here, especially since I'm really getting the urge to pick one of these up at $200 off, but the last time RIM promised something it didn't turn out so well. I think your best bet is to pick one up at a store with a return policy within the time to DevCon, and then if you don't like what you see about 2.0 at DevCon, you can return it! That's what I'm probably going to do, I personally see the sales continuing until that date but wouldn't expect the PB to be on sale once they announce the new features officially (demand goes up, cost goes up). But hopefully 2 weeks before DevCon, Best Buy is still selling it for $200 off (and other retailers as well).

[shootsscores]

Don't get me wrong here, especially since I'm really getting the urge to pick one of these up at $200 off, but the last time RIM promised something it didn't turn out so well. I think your best bet is to pick one up at a store with a return policy within the time to DevCon, and then if you don't like what you see about 2.0 at DevCon, you can return it! That's what I'm probably going to do, I personally see the sales continuing until that date but wouldn't expect the PB to be on sale once they announce the new features officially (demand goes up, cost goes up). But hopefully 2 weeks before DevCon, Best Buy is still selling it for $200 off (and other retailers as well).

You don't appear to know what the PB has now. Bridging is excellent. Hardware superb. Full web. Most advanced UI on the market.

[anon(1049620)]

I really don't think RIM owes anyone a rebate or refund. Auto makers discount slow moving inventory throughout the year, so do other manufacturers. I didn't buy a PB at $500 because I didn't see a need for it. At $300 I think it is worth trying, maybe it will be useful for me. I bought one yesterday from the 1daysale site. I am looking forward to trying it out next week. I will not feel cheated if/when the price drops again in a few months.

While I would almost always agree with this statement and the reasoning behind it, let's not forget that this isn't the same as a regular sale on a product. RIM promised features, which resulted in premature adoption of the tablet. Had people known it would be until November (minimum) until OS 2.0, some would NOT have dropped $500 on it and waited.

It's not that RIM owes anyone anything, but it's a show of good faith to its customers, the most loyal of which, those who put up their money at the beginning and took Lazaridis and Balsillie at their word. It's a way of saying "hey, we know we messed up, but we really appreciate you guys sticking by us. We want to show you some love. Here's a free case for your Playbook, your choice." Apple did something similar (and believe me, I hate Apple and they usually don't give two damns about their customers), and were right to do it. Without early adopters, loyalists to the RIMpire, you lose FREE and ENTHUSIASTIC promotion of your products down the road, and result in people complaining about your product.

Business school 101. Customer retention over customer acquisition. Always.

[anon(1049620)]

You don't appear to know what the PB has now. Bridging is excellent. Hardware superb. Full web. Most advanced UI on the market.

That's awesome, and for those who care about those features alone, then great! I'm not an advocate of one product being perfect for everyone, I believe different products/features work for different people. The current state of the PB does not work for me. The features I am waiting for are as follows:

- Bluetooth A2DP. Still unbelievable this isn't active (unless I'm mistaken?)
- Android App Player (for Google Earth; Google Maps would be a huge plus)
- Native calendar, BBM, email, etc. As long as this would work in tandem with my BB (otherwise it'd have to be Bridged)
- Dropbox (really a nice to have )
- A great Remote Desktop application (anyone recommend something? I heard aVNC is pretty good?)

I'm not a fan of leaving my Bluetooth on constantly on my phone and tablet, but will do so if I need to. But I'm not going to drop that cash on the PB if it doesn't have Bluetooth A2DP or the Android Player (with multiple instance support). But hey, to each his own and if you love it, and it works well for you, I'm actually really happy to hear that!

Oh, and "full web" isn't really true... if you have a Google AdWords account, the PB browser crashes if you try to use the desktop version of AdWords. Mobile version is severely crippled. Kind of a biggie for business users, will have to see if 2.0 helps at all.

[Economist101]

If they can make money or cover the loss in licensing of apps over the next year this could be a good strategy.

They can't. Even Apple doesn't make any real money from the App Store, and they move more paid apps than anyone. The $540 million Apple gained last year from the App Store paid the entire store's credit card transaction fees, marketing, servers, etc. RIM uses the same business model; software is used to sell hardware, not the other way around, and their store revenue last year was less than 1/6th of Apple's. RIM's potential gain here is broader acceptance of their device leading to more developer support, not downstream revenue flowing from app sales.

[Economist101]

Oh, and "full web" isn't really true...

He knows it isn't true.

[adamkesher]

He knows it isn't true.

Also the Bridge propoganda. It could just be my phone/carrier, but I seldom am able to get the Bridge Browser working correctly. It will bring up the home page of some pages, but then won't open any links on that page.

[moryc]

They can't. Even Apple doesn't make any real money from the App Store, and they move more paid apps than anyone. The $540 million Apple gained last year from the App Store paid the entire store's credit card transaction fees, marketing, servers, etc. RIM uses the same business model; software is used to sell hardware, not the other way around, and their store revenue last year was less than 1/6th of Apple's. RIM's potential gain here is broader acceptance of their device leading to more developer support, not downstream revenue flowing from app sales.

RIM makes money from software - BES and related services ... check your facts.

[moryc]

RIM makes money from software - BES and related services ... check your facts.

I just checked my facts ... and I retract my previous statement:
80% of RIMM revenue in 2010 came from Devices, versus 16% from Services, 2% from Software, and 2% from "Other"

I apologize for the unfounded attack Economist101 ;-)

[tchocky77]

i feel a little cheated that i paid $499 two months ago. If i knew a price cut was coming so soon i would have waited.

There's bound to be a great deal of that going around, whether people admit it or not.lol. Good on ya for being honest about it! I bought a 64gb model and decided it was WAY overpriced for being so crippled out of the box and returned it for a full refund. However, if and when 2.0 arrives and has a few weeks for the bugs to get squashed, I'll give playbook another hard look at the new prices. Frankly, I expect it to come down even more in the new year, because I'm pretty sure the Kfire will sell like mad over the holidays. I know I'll be getting one, as I'm already an Amazon Prime subscriber and spend a fair amount of money there.

[tchocky77]

You don't appear to know what the PB has now. Bridging is excellent. Hardware superb. Full web. Most advanced UI on the market.

"Bridging", in my opinion, is a poor excuse for proper functionality. And utterly meaningless to people without a BB phone. (i.e. the vast majority of smartphone users.) In fact, I think it's exactly the reason PB sales have been abysmal to this point necessitating the steep price cuts. If RIM was hoping to move enough Playbooks to make money on them, then having "bridge" rather than native email and calendars was a very poor decision.

Just my $.02.

[tchocky77]

Business school 101. Customer retention over customer acquisition. Always.

+100

Making Beta testers out of your biggest fans/early adopters and charging them $500-$700 for the privilege is just poor business practice and now they're paying dearly for it.

[adamkesher]

Couldn't help but notice that the Toshiba Thrive is only $399 at Best Buy also. Specs look pretty good on that one, wonder why it isn't selling more. Its the only one with USB 2.0 that everyone was screaming for when the iPad 1 came out.

[bhuinker]

I agree with you. I cannot seem to find a place in my life for a tablet.

I have a good laptop running Windows 7 x64 with 2 x 750Gb disks, a BlackBerry 9780 and a Kindle book reader.

I'l also admit to owning two iPods, an 8Gb one in the car and an 80Gb one for long haul flights.

I just can't find a need for a tablet.

Is there something (else) wrong with me ?

Yeah, you look like an alien...