16GB BlackBerry PlayBook Priced at $499 and heading to Office Depot
Earlier this week we saw some news that the BlackBerry PlayBook will be sold at Staples (among plenty of other retailers) and it looks like it will be on the way to Office Depot as well.
Context & Ripple Effects
The $499 tag makes good on the strategy RIM laid out in November 2010, when it committed to undercutting the iPad's entry price with a sub-$500 tablet. What is new here is the channel detail: rather than a single launch partner, the PlayBook's US rollout is shaping up as a broad retail spread, with Staples already named and [[a:entity|Office Depot]] now confirmed alongside it.
First-order effects
- Office Depot gains a marquee tablet SKU at launch, putting the PlayBook on shelves next to the same office-and-education buyers Staples will be courting when its stock arrives.
Second-order effects
- A $499 street price forces every other non-Apple retailer stocking Android tablets like the XOOM to defend shelf space against a device positioned directly on Apple's entry-level price point.
Third-order effects
- If RIM sustains the sub-$500 positioning across multiple national chains, tablet competition shifts from carrier stores and electronics specialists into mainstream office retail, widening the audience beyond early adopters.
The trend: Tablet makers are racing to blanket mass-market retail chains at aggressive price points to challenge the iPad's dominance outside Apple's own store footprint.