new firesale of "pads/books" on the way

[space-time]

Remember how Best Buy reduced the price of the HP TouchPad by $50 or $100 cause it didn't sell, and just a month later HP killed it (yeah right, now they plan to make so more) and the firesale started?

well, here is another one. IMHO this is the beginning of the end for this 'book

http://www.informationweek.com/news/pers.../231600753

For a limited time, the 16GB PlayBook is available for $449.99, a $50 discount. The 32GB PlayBook has been discounted to $549.99, also a $50 discount. Most interesting, however, is that the 64GB PlayBook has been discounted a whopping $150, down to $549.99. The 64GB PlayBook normally sells for $700.

[evilrobot]

$50 off is a firesale?

[Carnos Jax]

No, but it may be the precursor to one...

[evilrobot]

(i'm not knocking you, space-time.)

retailers may want to be more aggressive on the discount if they want any kind of momentum against the iPad. if a non-iOS book/pad is bolted to the shelf at $700, $550 isn't a great incentive to go against a segment gorilla.

[silvarios]

evilrobot wrote:
(i'm not knocking you, space-time.)

retailers may want to be more aggressive on the discount if they want any kind of momentum against the iPad. if a non-iOS book/pad is bolted to the shelf at $700, $550 isn't a great incentive to go against a segment gorilla.

$550 for 64GB is cheaper than the 64GB iPad 2. You think undercutting the competitor by 21%(ish) isn't noteworthy?

[ztirffritz]

Have they updated the Playbook yet so that it doesn't need to be tethered to a Blackberry? We bought one for our CEO and couldn't figure out how to get his email on it. Finally found that it had to be tethered to his Blackberry to get email. That works I guess...but couldn't they find a better solution? Reminds me of the Palm Foleo that was so derided that they canceled it a few weeks after it was announced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo

[silvarios]

ztirffritz wrote:
Have they updated the Playbook yet so that it doesn't need to be tethered to a Blackberry?

Don't know. That was a rather odd decision, not sure what RIM was thinking.

[decay]

apparently the appeal of the playbook is that it's secure and doesn't require an additional data plan to use with 3G.

fans of it seem happy with connecting it to a BlackBerry for tethering access to mobile web.

[DharmaDog]

In this case, I don't think 21% is going to woo many customers. People want the iPad. They don't really want the PlayBook. Spending $550 for something you don't really want isn't enticing. But $99 for a TouchPad may have stolen some iPad sales.

[mrbigstuff]

DharmaDog wrote:
In this case, I don't think 21% is going to woo many customers. People want the iPad. They don't really want the PlayBook. Spending $550 for something you don't really want isn't enticing. But $99 for a TouchPad may have stolen some iPad sales.

Yes, I agree, although I'm not sure people who bought the HP would have ponied up the extra cash for any tablet, short of getting them for a Benjamin.