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TELUS: “all 3 PlayBooks are End of Life”
Yesterday we posted that the 16GB and 32GB BlackBerry PlayBook was price dropped yet again, now hitting a low $149.99 outright. Reading over the doc again gave a bit more insight, specifically noting that “all 3 PlayBooks are End of Life”. This is the first time we’ve seen it so definitive and could mean that RIM is prepping to launch the 3G model soon.
Last week a leaked roadmap surfaced that showed RIM targeting to release a 3G BlackBerry PlayBook sometime in Q2 (42Mbps HSPA+). The overall design is expected to be the same as the Wi-Fi version, but includes a 1.5Ghz TI OMAP 4460 processor and NFC capabilities. The most interesting part of the new PlayBook launch will be witnessing RIM position its pricing. Shifting the public’s perception from a $150 tablet to say a $500 tablet is a tough task… perhaps that’s job #1 for RIM’s new CMO.
(Thanks tipster!)
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43 comments for “TELUS: “all 3 PlayBooks are End of Life””
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mAYBE THEY SHOULD BE CALLING THE NEXT GEN
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Do you mean “Last Gen”?
How about Playbook PB (Finished Product)
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The problem with the PB was that they rushed it too much and the “Prototype” labels arrived after they shipped them out.
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I was going to say…
Maybe they should be calling this next gen tablet the “Pray Book” instead.
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Wait a minute, not once in that Marketing Bulletin does it talk about the playbook being End of life. You would think news like this would get at least 1 bullet point in a memo.
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The only reason it’s qualifying as EOL is because it’s approaching the 1-year marker (which is apparently old in today’s mobile market), and because they are probably nearing doing something with their 4G Playbooks soon.
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if the new one comes with rim heroes sticker I am sold
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Seems like a pretty minor refresh, so I’m feeling pretty good about picking one up today for $149 at Blacks.
With a Kobo Touch @ $130, this was a no-brainer. Can’t wait for QNX 2.0.
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Its not called QNX anymore: it’s “GoGogirl 2.0″ but they will finally google it next week, find out that its registered to somebody else and change it back to PWIP (Powerful Work In Progress)
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They’re EOL because the 4G (HSPA+ really) PlayBooks are coming along with new wifi models.
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Los Angeles: Likes- the wteehar’s nice and bugs leave me alone. Also, the sunsets are generally very nice. um, more things are likely to come here, happen here or pass through here than many other places. Dislikes: Los Angeles.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Fat Finder! You’re back!
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dasf
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These were EOL to begin with
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Unless your name is Apple, you’re not going to be able to sell a $500 tablet without subsidies. And I don’t think Apple will be able to keep that up for much longer as well.
Get the 3G version out the door, so Robellus can sell it for cheap with a 3 year contract. Sheeple….errr…… People will be lining up to pick one up for $100-$200 with a 3yr contract, and RIM can claim that so many people are buying one at $500+.
Then you can sell a new-and-improved WiFi version for about $250. Few will buy it, anyone who has wanted a Playbook has already bought one by now.
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EOL the Playbook may be, but as long as I can still read MS with it on the throne, I’m happy with my purchase.
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Why does Telus marketing material mention the *exact* same point twice (bullet 1 and 3)? Seems sorta stupid.
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I have yet to find one in stock in BC!!!
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I don’t know what the case for Telus is but it seems RIM isn’t subsidizing any playbooks sold at these prices (which is why other retailers wont match it)
I wonder if it’s truly EOL or just EOL for Telus. Certainly an efficient way to clear stock if your only goal is to wash your hands of it.
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One of their biggest mistakes with the playbook was to price it at $500. This should have entered the market at $300.
Now that the new OS will finally support functions that had everyone up in arms with the first iteration of the playbook (email, calendar), it’s a feasible tablet for productivity. But if they price it at $500 as well, this will also flop, and this time next year we’ll see these new playbooks on “fire” sale again. We’ll all expect history to repeat itself with the $500–>$300–>$200–>$150 happening all over again.
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Have you (all) tried OS 2.0 beta yet? It’s a cleaner version of the current one, has a keyboard that guesses which word you are writing (like in android). When it comes out, I would have thought RIM would jack the price up.
With this post, maybe RIM should leave the device at $199 and then push sales for games in its app store.
Praybook 3.0. LOL. That was a funny one.
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Best buy matched the price for me this morning. It’s worth a shot if you’re interested.
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My local telus store has plenty, the funniest part is that you can get 16GB or 32GB for the same price and still in stock.
“Only” 32GB in stock at Telus online.
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Imagine: Telus had these things for an entire year taking space in warehouses, stores, website etc etc goodriddance!
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Playbook page not available anymore on Telus website
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Pehaps end of life for telecoms operator beacuse of 3G playbook?
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I’ll be happy with my 64gb at $299 if OS2 comes out in the next 2 weeks and it does what they have promising it would do.
It certainly has enough power to handle good software. I pretty much do nothing but play EA monopoly on it at the moment.
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Here’s the thing. $500 is a huge premium to swallow for 3G and some minor upgrades especially considering much of their target market will have wifi hotspot capable phones with faster than 3G connections. If RIM is counting on this to save them they are toast.
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Seems like RIM probably made them take the Playbook off their website. This wasn’t a RIM promo pricing, this was Telus going rogue and they’re no longer allowed to sell Playbooks because of it (though they clearly didn’t want to anymore).
Pricing will remain as it was everywhere else for now, I guess.
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I visited all the stores possible, all of them are saying its out of stock. Also Telus removed the Blackberry Playbook from their website today.
It looks like they don’t want to sell it right now, so that’s why they have instructed all their stores to say that the device is out of stock.
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F**k Telus
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@ Aman
Something fishy is definitely going on. I went to the Telus Head Office location located within the Telus building in Toronto today right after I read this article and they told me they were out of stock. Without hesitation they advised me that every single Telus location was completely sold out. Seems strange because this sale wasn’t advertised, and realistically speaking, how many people out there are big enough nerds to frequent this website?
Plus the 149.99 sticker on the display model was a crappy print out.
I wonder if they even sold one.
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They sold them all, and are now neither willing nor allowed to carry them.
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Telus did not have many left to begin with. I bought one on Thursday, and after some hassle, managed to get the price adjusted on Friday. But by Friday morning, almost none were in stock at any of the Toronto stores. It’s a great little device, the software is as nice as an iPad. The only thing it needs are more apps..
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dont believe it. This article was published at 1157 and I was there at 1215
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[...] doc again gave a bit more insight, specifically noting that “all 3 PlayBooks are End of Life”.Via mobilesyrup.com « iPad Apps for Education This iPhone App Has a Secret Tethering Feature » [...]
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I don’t know why so many people are upset at Telus for this.
This was a clearance sale to get rid of the 1 or 2 Playbooks still hanging around here and there. Telus probably expects RIM to release a new Playbook soon, and that’s why they want to get rid of their existing inventory. This was never some grandiose sale advertised in every newspaper nationwide. This was a “Hey, if you have 1 or 2 Playbooks kicking around, sell them for $150 so we can remove the display model from the front of the store”.
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[...] Quelle: MobileSyrup.com [...]
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[...] to a leaked internal marketing bulletin from Telus, first posted on Mobile Syrup, Research in Motion’s Blackberry Playbook has reached its End of [...]
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[...] | MobileSyrup | Email [...]
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[...] BlackBerry PlayBook 2 release.You can read more about the BlackBerry PlayBook 2 hereSource: Mobile Syrup Leave a Comment Cancel replyYou must be logged in to post a comment.Follow Berry4MeFeatured [...]
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