Where is the PlayBook made?

I am in the UK and I am keen to buy a PlayBook. However, I have a couple of questions.

1) Where is the PlayBook made?

2) If I buy one, will I be getting a device which has been lying stockpiled in a warehouse for the last 18 months or so, or will I be getting a device which has been manufactured much more recently? In other words, are the devices currently on sale in the UK the remnants of early production models?

3) Is there any way of telling when a particular device was manufactured e.g. from a serial number or even a date stamp?

I would be very grateful for any information on these points.

Hey welcome to the forums. I'll try my best to answer these questions for you.

1. It is believed that the BlackBerry PlayBook is made by Quanta Computers, they're based out of Taiwan.
2. The stock in stores won't be 18 months old, most stock is a newer build and features the updated power button. (some users were having issue with it when the PlayBook launched)
3. I'm not sure if there is a way to tell the manufacturing date by the serial, maybe someone else in the forums has the answer. But I'll go out on a limb and say no you cannot.

Hopefully I was able to answer you're questions.

Manufacturing date is listed on the retail box.

Bought mine 3wks ago and the manufacturing date was Dec 27 2011.
No problems and I really like it.

Originally Posted by pacoman03

Manufacturing date is listed on the retail box.

Thanks for pointing that out :)

I got mine about a month ago, and it was made on Aug 28, 2012.
The manufacture date is on the label on the outer case.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the very helpful replies.

Can anyone confirm that the PlayBook is made in Taiwan as Zach Gilbert surmises?

Mine says made in Taiwan. No manufacturing date though.

I too am always interested in where things I buy are made. When the PB first came out, the information given was that the PB is assembled in Taiwan of components primarily manufactured in both Taiwan & "Red" China. On the other hand, most if not all BB phones are manufactured in M�xico or Hungary.

Unless it was one of the new cellular pb's, it will have been manufactured quite a while ago, most likely. The date on the box may represent when it was packaged as opposed to a manufacturing date.

Originally Posted by PatrickMJS

I too am always interested in where things I buy are made. When the PB first came out, the information given was that the PB is assembled in Taiwan of components primarily manufactured in both Taiwan & "Red" China. On the other hand, most if not all BB phones are manufactured in M�xico or Hungary.

Oh, dating yourself, no? :)

I have purchased 3 Playbook since May 2012. Each of the box labels say made in Taiwan and the dates are as follows:

32gb purchased in May was dated Jan. 18, 2012
16gb purchased in July was dated Dec. 19, 2011
16gb purchased in Aug was dated Mar. 12, 2012

OK, folks, it's back to the drawing board.

I went along to PC World today and got them to get some of their boxed PlayBooks out of stock. All the boxes they got out had a serial number and confirmed that the device itself was made in Taiwan and the accessories that came with it were made in China. But there was nothing on any of the labels that was recognisably a date of any kind. I note that most of the people who have posted replies so far are from North America. It would seem strange (to me, at least) if the box labels there gave a date of manufacture but in other countries that was not the case.

Is there anyone from the UK who has a box with a date of manufacture on the label?

If not, does anyone anywhere know of any other way to tell the date of manufacture?

In the meantime, as and when I get the chance over the next few days, I will try some other retailers to see if their box labels contain different information.

Thanks for all the help so far and thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any more help.

I bought mine ~27th December 2011 and it was indeed a May 11 device.

If you have questions about your device the PIN and serial number cab be tracked by RIM to date and location of batch manufactured. All are made in Taiwan and accessories are from China along with all the knockoff accessories they to are from China

Originally Posted by boldkeyboardholic

I bought mine ~27th December 2011 and it was indeed a May 11 device.

I see that your carrier is O2. Does that mean you are in the UK? If so, how do you know the date of manufacture? Was there a label with this information?

Originally Posted by cicero12

I am in the UK and I am keen to buy a PlayBook. However, I have a couple of questions.

1) Where is the PlayBook made?

2) If I buy one, will I be getting a device which has been lying stockpiled in a warehouse for the last 18 months or so, or will I be getting a device which has been manufactured much more recently? In other words, are the devices currently on sale in the UK the remnants of early production models?

3) Is there any way of telling when a particular device was manufactured e.g. from a serial number or even a date stamp?

I would be very grateful for any information on these points.

The simple answers are:

1) It is made in Taiwan from primarily Taiwanese and Chinese components.
2) Unless you buy the 4G version, it is most certainly stock that has been sitting for a long time since it has been around a year since the production run shut down. People referring to manufacturing dates on the box are without doubt looking at a packaging date. You can't have a wifi version manufactured this year since there have been none produced this year.
3) With some manufacturers, you can figure out a ballpark manufacture date from a serial number, but it is often hit or miss. As a classic example, you can generally decipher the manufacturing year of a Nikon SLR by the serial number, but the year is the most you will ever get. As almost all Playbooks were produced in 2011, it is unlikely that you could use the serial number to more than confirm the obvious (it was made in 2011). You might be able to figure out which production run with help from RIM, but I doubt they would be helpful. That is also not a criticism of RIM. It is easier to counterfeit a product if you can fake a serial number using the same parameters as the manufacturer.

Bear in mind many components come from various suppliers from around the world. Despite that, most of them manufacture their components in China or Taiwan.

Mine bears the 5-11 date and was made in Taiwan.

nope, Germany - down there in Europe ( ;) )

bought in on Amazon.de sale; it was writting with other information somewhere on the package of the device.

But I can't remember where exactly.

i am in the uk already had a 32gb that i bought dec 2011 not checked that one,bought a 64gb last month pc world �129 just checked box made in taiwan 06/05/2011

Bought a PB 64 GB last week here in the Netherlands. There is a white sticker on the box which has bar codes, and says Regional Europe, Made in Taiwan, Accessories made in China, 280611.
All works very well, battery, did the update 2.1.0.1032 right away. Very happy with it.

Originally Posted by sugbo

Bought a PB 64 GB last week here in the Netherlands. There is a white sticker on the box which has bar codes, and says Regional Europe, Made in Taiwan, Accessories made in China, 280611.
All works very well, battery, did the update 2.1.0.1032 right away. Very happy with it.

So yours was made (or boxed) June 28, 2011.

Depending on your box bar code:

1. Candy Mountain
2. Aquilonia, Hyborea
3. The Avengers Mansion Mon-Fri and the Baxter Building on weekends.

as previous post said, that date probably packaging date. I would be very surprised if they still manufactured them in 2012 since they couldn't sell it well. it would be silly strategy that they have fire sale while still produced it. then the more the produced, the more lost they have to take.

Originally Posted by madman0141

If you have questions about your device the PIN and serial number cab be tracked by RIM to date and location of batch manufactured. All are made in Taiwan and accessories are from China along with all the knockoff accessories they to are from China

_________

I looked all over the box and the slipcase and finally saw a white label on the "spine" of the box with a label which read "Accessories Made in China" and below that a code number which read "010611". To me that means Jan 6, 2011 or 1 June 2011 (depending on whether you are English, Canadian or American. In the U.S., the month number comes first.) I would not interpret those numbers to mean that the entire PB was assembled in that date. I read it as only the accessories.

Let's face it: China has been recognized as the "manufacturer to the world," and Foxconn, a Taiwanese firm and the world's largest electronics manufacturer/assembler (employing close to 1,000,000 people) is located in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong. Without Foxconn, Apple would not be Apple. It's really odd that the PRC and Taiwan are technically still at war with each other, but when it comes to business, the Chinese are very practical-minded on matters of accommodation.