[blackberry] Playbook price drops - 16GB £249 32GB £329 at Currys

[localzuk]

Just read that Currys have dropped the price of the RIM Playbook by £150 for each model. So, they are now £249 for the 16GB model, and £329 for the 32GB model.

 

As someone who has been interested in dipping their toe into the tablet world for a while, this has made me thinking 'ooh, pay day in a week or so'...

 

Anyone else think this sort of price point is a good one to work at?

 

Dixons stores knock £150 off RIM PlayBook ? reghardware

[sdc]

Not bad pricing; the device is excellent - I've had mine for a couple of months or so and am still using it daily. The number of apps is slowly improving; once the Android player (and apps) become available, it'll help. But for web browsing, and using in conjunction with my Blackberry Torch for email and calendaring, it's great. I bought mine whilst on holiday in Canada when they came out, so had it for a short while before they were released over here. The original software was a little slow and battery life pretty miserable - but a software update soon afterwards fixed both of those. I get nearly a week's use from the battery, with WIFI and Bluetooth on continuously.

[Guest Guest]

I think that price point is a start but personally I think £200 is the max price for what is ultimately just a web browser.

 

Personally I would use it to control my TV and audio systems, and possibly home automation, that sort of thing. But the vast majority of people use tablets for looking on facebook, ebay, and that's pretty much your lot.

[Millgate]

It hasn't been the massive hit that some people thought it would be! A certain online reseller bought in thousands as they're a BB partner and ended up selling most of it back to RIM because they couldn't shift them!

 

I haven't had a play with one so i don't know what they're like but a lot of their marketing was based on beating the iPad because the Playbook had Flash. I don't think they thought about the Android tabs

[Guest Guest]

I haven't had a play with one so i don't know what they're like but a lot of their marketing was based on beating the iPad because the Playbook had Flash. I don't think they thought about the Android tabs

 

I think a lot of geekier android users will be put off by the fact that they aren't android, I certainly am. £250 is a lot of money to find that the apps I want aren't available.

[localzuk]

Blackberry BBX, their new OS has the ability to open Android apps according to Blackberry. Can RIM’s new BBX OS keep BlackBerry from going sour?

[Arthur]

Blackberry BBX, their new OS has the ability to open Android apps according to Blackberry.

The Runtime for Android Apps has quite a few limitations...

 

Recently, RIM announced that it would be launching the Blackberry runtime for Android apps soon, hoping to breathe some life into the dying Playbook, which shipped just 200,000 units last quarter to manufacturers.

 

It was a moment to rejoice, for all users of the Blackberry Playbook around the world — a grand total of around 673. However, some things are just not meant to be. Today, RIM announced some more details about the runtime emulator for Android apps, specifically which features would be unavailable to Android apps running on the emulator.

 

Here is a laundry list of some significant Android features which will not be supported by the Playbook, rendering certain types of apps useless.

 

• Apps using live wallpapers
  
• Apps using SIP and SIP VOIP protocols
  
• Apps built using the NDK
  
• Apps containing only app widgets
  
• Apps containing more than more than one Launcher activity
  
• Apps using Google Maps
  
• Apps using in-app billing
  
• Apps using Android’s text-to-speech engine
  
• Apps using Android’s cloud-to-device messaging system
  

We all knew that running Android apps on the emulator in a Playbook was going to be a crappy experience, exactly as running low resolution smartphone apps on a high resolution tablet display using a software emulator ought to be. However, with all these types of apps not supported, you have a significant number of apps which make Android awesome completely incompatible with the Playbook. (Source)

[JoeBloggs]

£250 is getting closer. I want a tablet, but like someone else said - for just using for Facebook, e-mail, web browsing etc £250 is still a lot of money.

 

If the Galaxy Tab came down that much, I would seriously consider it. Being an S2 owner it seems logical.