BlackBerry PlayBook now on sale in the US and Canada, starting at $500 with 16GB of storage
Today is the day in BlackBerry land. The wait for a dual-core device with an up-to-date operating system and that stylized BB logo is now over, and a vast array of stores in the US and Canada are now ready to sell you your PlayBook.
Context & Ripple Effects
The launch closes a five-month arc that began when RIM pledged to sell its tablet for under $500 to take on the iPad, a promise the final $499 price for the 16GB model keeps to within a dollar. Retail distribution was locked in early, with Office Depot among the first outlets named alongside Staples, giving RIM broad US and Canadian shelf presence from day one.
What RIM is launching into is less forgiving than the pricing plan suggested: the January PlayBook review and subsequent critic consensus flagged a thin app catalog as the device's central weakness, and the same-day syndicated coverage reports AT&T is blocking the BlackBerry Bridge companion feature over tethering concerns. The backdrop is a company whose confirmed loss of mobile dominance to iPhone and Android makes this tablet its highest-profile attempt at a second act.
First-order effects
- Buyers in the US and Canada can pick up a 16GB PlayBook today for $499–$500 at Staples, Office Depot and other big-box retailers, but they get a dual-core tablet whose own reviews say ships without an adequate native email client or app selection.
- AT&T subscribers are blocked from using BlackBerry Bridge out of the gate, cutting a headline differentiator — pairing the tablet with a BlackBerry phone — for customers of the largest US GSM carrier.
Second-order effects
- Pricing at iPad parity with a fraction of the apps puts pressure back on RIM's retail partners, who will bear inventory risk on slow-moving stock unless demand materializes beyond the BlackBerry installed base.
- Other carriers now face the same Bridge-versus-tethering decision AT&T made, turning a software feature into a negotiating point between RIM and its carrier channel just as the tablet needs maximum distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the launch pattern holds — competitive hardware and price undermined by ecosystem gaps and carrier friction — it hardens the case that a third mobile OS cannot enter tablets on specs alone, and that enterprise-oriented vendors like RIM must win developer mindshare or cede the category to Apple and Google.
The trend: The tablet market of early 2011 is consolidating around Apple's app-ecosystem advantage, forcing challengers like RIM to compete on hardware and price while their platforms remain the weak link.