Very good PlayBook news

I was out shopping last night in Currys (Uk).

I got my daughter a PlayBook for Christmas cos I can't get her off mine and got chatting to the sales assistant. He said that the PlayBook was flying of the shelves like hot cakes, so much so that they are getting constant resupplies. So that makes me wonder, if Currys are selling them by the shed load how many owners are there in the UK? Will the app makers sit up and take notice?

Having a big user base that gets bb10 early next year may just drive phone sales. Pretty smart move by rim.

Just got three for my kids for Christmas for the same reason. I also travel a lot and the video chat feature will be great.

Got 4 in the house now (wife and kids) and got my oldest daughter one for this Xmas. :)

Originally Posted by comparethemeerkat.com

I was out shopping last night in Currys (Uk).

I got my daughter a PlayBook for Christmas cos I can't get her off mine and got chatting to the sales assistant. He said that the PlayBook was flying of the shelves like hot cakes, so much so that they are getting constant resupplies. So that makes me wonder, if Currys are selling them by the shed load how many owners are there in the UK? Will the app makers sit up and take notice?

Having a big user base that gets bb10 early next year may just drive phone sales. Pretty smart move by rim.

Rule number one, never trust a sales associate.
That being said, considering it's very low price point, there would be no reason that it does any less than "flying off the shelves".
Seeing how it's the holiday season, if you were going to buy a gift for 5 people. 5 Playbooks would definitely hurt your wallet less than 5 iPads. ;)

Originally Posted by Andrew4life

Rule number one, never trust a sales associate.
That being said, considering it's very low price point, there would be no reason that it does any less than "flying off the shelves".
Seeing how it's the holiday season, if you were going to buy a gift for 5 people. 5 Playbooks would definitely hurt your wallet less than 5 iPads. ;)

I think it makes for a great Christmas gift!! Saves money, plus it it another BlackBerry sale. Looks good to the family member, if they don't know much you spent, too.

Originally Posted by reschp

Just got three for my kids for Christmas for the same reason. I also travel a lot and the video chat feature will be great.

+1. Sales should be good this christmas. I find it hard to believe people would buy three ipad mini's, three kindle fires, or three nexus 7's.three playbooks is the only one that sounds real

And we would have a perfect Christmas if RIM asked Santa Claus' help, together with his magical elves to help them speed up the completion of BB10 and release it on Christmas eve... afterall, Santa doesn't need his reindeers to drop it to their beloved, nice, kind and patiently waiting BlackBerry loyal customers... they needs only to upload it to Internet, roll it out, and send us notification such as "Merry Christmas - "...

Guess, I'm watching too much of Santa's movies...

Anyway, Valentines is still not a bad occasion for celebration...

I'm in the UK. I'm not surprised that the Playbook is flying of Curry's shelves, as it is in their current sales brochure, and at the price it is an absolute bargain. I bought my first PB 16 Gb secondhand off eBay in February for �155, in August I bought a second one but 64 Gb from Currys by mail order for �129 including delivery. I persuaded my brother to buy one too; despite being a BB phone user he had been sceptical for a long time, saying he couldn't see a use for a tablet. Now the PB has to be prised from his hands. My two PBs are with me 24/7, wherever I go, and in constant use.

One of the main things I love about the Playbook is the gesture UI. Swiping and tapping is just so intuitive and natural. Pressing buttons is just so 20th century and it is now difficult to imagine controlling a tablet, phone or even a PC in any other way. I cannot wait for my BB London phone, as I visualise it as a mini-PlayBook but with an even better interface, and with phone calls.

If it's cheap it will sell.

Originally Posted by djrupey

I persuaded my brother to buy one too; despite being a BB phone user he had been sceptical for a long time, saying he couldn't see a use for a tablet. Now the PB has to be prised from his hands. My two PBs are with me 24/7, wherever I go, and in constant use.

The criticism of the PlayBook is baffling to me: the combination of a BB Handheld and the PlayBook w/ Bridge is a stellar user experience. The marketing folks at RIM circa the PlayBook launch botched it SO BADLY it makes me think I should have a huge raise, cuz I'm way better than them. Too bad I don't work in marketing any more, per se... :-(

I have two PBs, cuz I couldn't resist picking up another 64 GB for $199 CDN.

Originally Posted by lorax1284

The criticism of the PlayBook is baffling to me: the combination of a BB Handheld and the PlayBook w/ Bridge is a stellar user experience. The marketing folks at RIM circa the PlayBook launch botched it SO BADLY it makes me think I should have a huge raise, cuz I'm way better than them. Too bad I don't work in marketing any more, per se... :-(

I have two PBs, cuz I couldn't resist picking up another 64 GB for $199 CDN.

Coming from someone with so many other devices!

The real difference in numbers will happen when the BB10 phones are released. With BB10 on both the tablets and phones the numbers will be enough for developers to take notice then.

Originally Posted by kbz1960

Coming from someone with so many other devices!

this is so true

I dont know if its just a Canada thing but seems EVERYONE I know is buying their kids playbooks because of the price and what you can do with it.
I told my bro about my purchase then he went and got 2 for his kids for Christmas then my cousin got 2 for his kids. They all say you cant beat the price/value ratio. If this type of stuff continues could be real good for the user base and demographics with such young users just on the precipe of teenage years getting weened on these things.

I got asked by a colleague about my playbook yesterday... he was considering to buy her wife one as Christmas gift.

My colleague saw my pb from election night (USA), and now she wants to get 3 of them (one for her, one for each kid).

Add your name to the Pledge To BB10!

if I could I would buy three for myself...

I've got two. Gave my girlfriend my old 16gb and bought a 64gb from PC World for �129 a couple of weeks back.
Absolute bargain!

Originally Posted by djrupey

One of the main things I love about the Playbook is the gesture UI. Swiping and tapping is just so intuitive and natural. Pressing buttons is just so 20th century and it is now difficult to imagine controlling a tablet, phone or even a PC in any other way. I cannot wait for my BB London phone, as I visualise it as a mini-PlayBook but with an even better interface, and with phone calls.

I really cant see how people can say, this I really really hate touch screen what about tactility and being able to browse type touch etc without consciously having to align your fingers... to me touch screens are only there to make it cheaper for manufactures... Im sincerely praying hardware keyboards on phones are binned as I will be screwed... The main reason I have the playbook is I can type on it with my 9900.

It's still selling well here in Canada where it holds the #2 position (20%+) to the iPad. The 3rd and 4th position tablets, both Android, hold 6 and 4% respectively. A friend of mine who' s fairly high up in Best Buy Canada says that the PlayBook is still the fastest selling tablet in both Best Buy and Future Shop stores and keeping the thing in stock is almost impossible. It's a shame that the world only looks to the US for sales rankings, etc., there's a lot of positive news out there which just gets shuffled under the carpet.

Here's a rumour I heard from a couple of people last week: 2Gen PlayBook, including a 10", to be launched in February. I really can't back this up, though, but the people who told me certainly know what they're talking about and I'm more inclined to believe them than not.

I'm in the USA.
While more units might result in some apps good news would be the regular pricing structure permanently reduced.
That and something official from RIM on a free upgrade to BB10 for current units.

What you are seeing is a attempt to clear DEAD inventory out before the bottom drops out.

I purchased (3) 64GB PlayBooks this last week, coming from different stores. ALL having a production date of 01-2011. Rough math = In little over a month from now (01-2012) they will be (2) years old indicating they were not selling.

Visiting the stores , and on certain items on the net I see accessories being sold at fire sale pricing / being on the Clearance Table.

The kind of math that I would love to see is: More PlayBooks sold = More Blackberry phones sold.

Originally Posted by WeAreNotAlone

I'm in the USA.
While more units might result in some apps good news would be the regular pricing structure permanently reduced.
That and something official from RIM on a free upgrade to BB10 for current units.

What you are seeing is a attempt to clear DEAD inventory out before the bottom drops out.

I purchased (3) 64GB PlayBooks this last week, coming from different stores. ALL having a production date of 01-2011. Rough math = In little over a month from now (01-2012) they will be (2) years old indicating they were not selling.

Visiting the stores , and on certain items on the net I see accessories being sold at fire sale pricing / being on the Clearance Table.

If I were them I would also want to be getting rid of all of that wrote off inventory and something rather than nothing out of it. Yes the original pb is old now so get them gone and that doesn't mean they are no good any longer. Then when BB10 takes off they can make the updated pb even updated from the LTE pb. BTW what ever happened to that one? Still only sold in Canada?

bought my playbook 64 onsale last january.liked so much went out and bought my first BB phone,no turning back now.both are great products

Originally Posted by kbz1960

If I were them I would also want to be getting rid of all of that wrote off inventory and something rather than nothing out of it. Yes the original pb is old now so get them gone and that doesn't mean they are no good any longer. ~snip~

Yep, Retailers are unloading DEAD inventory. "Current" 1ghz cpu'd 7 inch PlayBook is a EOL item at least thru all the USA retailers I've checked with. If it wasn't retailers wouldn't be clearancing out accessories...

I find it hard to believe that RIM:

A: Will be able to increase the price back to pre-fire sale prices.
B: That they are going to contract to have another batch of Wifi Playbooks made up.

Competition is too fierce, From and hardware and app standpoint.

My concern on first generation PlayBooks (EG Those not shipped with BB10) if RIM does not push out the BB10 update for "free" being developer (And Consumer) "interest" going "Poof".

Q: Anyone run across a OFFICIAL statement saying the BB10 update will be free to current PlayBook devices? Nothing I've read the update will be free... only that it is supposed to come. (ETA 3-6-9 months from now by some estimates)

I think one thing RIM needs to do is to create a (Gasp!) a app that can be run on any Android ?Windows phone that can control the PlayBook, Not all of us have a BlackBerry phone.

So far as marketing, I have not researched the history, but I read the PlayBook was marketed as being "Professional Grade" /targeted to business...
Who the heck picked the name "PlayBook"?

Business owner says, let me get this straight, you want to order 100 "PlayBooks" so my employees can do what ,"play"? No way...

.BTW: I like the PlayBook, disappointed in the amount of apps... So far as BB10 saving the day on a 2+ year old device, How many months will it take to get a GOOD SELECTION of high quality competitively priced apps?

People want as a example mapping apps, GPS, Skype, VOIP apps, Hulu, etc out of the box.
.