16GB BlackBerry PlayBook now $299 at Best Buy USA

Everyone I know who does not have a playbook is considering buying one! plus on top of this is Best buy is offering up the discount.

The playbook on its way to firesale
Be patient people don't buy, it would be $99 soon

This is the sweet spot it needs to be sold at $200 - $300
I'm not sure if RIM can make it work financially at this price point, but it's the only way the vast majority of consumers will consider it.

Tablets are quickly becoming a commodity - it will be interesting to see if even Apple has to lower their prices down the road.

I use blackberry products for communication and others for entertainment.

Since I already have a Blackberry Phone, I doubt that I'll get a Playbook even if it was $100. If I end up with a tablet it'll either be an Android or an IOS device.

Still too expensive for what it does. This thing will be $150 by November. I will wait. If it doesn't hit that price point by year's end then it will be "old technology" by next year.
I bought it the day it was released and quickly discovered that without a BB phone it was a fancy media player and browser. It was worth $499 based on promises. Adjusted price for failed promises; $150-$199. Thankfully, I sold mine at a premium months ago.

Amazon Kindle Fire will put significant pressure on PlayBook pricing. Kindle Fire has similar specs and it's $199! It's not a BlackBerry though. (Take that whichever way you want -- truth or sarcasm). PlayBook does do more and RIM has added a lot of value to it, but at $499? I hope the PlayBook stays at the $299 price point.

Would someone please explain to me the big deal of the upcoming 2.0 and what it offers? I'm on the market for a new tablet at a great price (any suggestions?). I own a Sprint BOLD 9930. Please help!

even if it does goes to $99 it will be impossible to get one just like the HP touchpad was, I got mine at officemax they also have it for $299 and if it drops down to $99 within 2 weeks they will give me the difference back!

Showing back ordered for me, wonder if they sold a bunch at this price....

not at $299 , it needs to go down to $99 - $150

I am so damn frustrated!! I really really want to buy a playbook, but I live in germany.
Nearly everywhere in the US the price dropped to 299$, amazon.de still has it for 406€ which is something about 550$!
why does only the US get the discounts and noone in the rest of the world

Is it worth $299 considering the reports coming out about the severely lacking android app support?

http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/28/blackberry-playbook-android-support-severe...

ALL models are instant $200 off

Best Buy.com has it listed as $499 and says it's backordered.

I waiting for the significant price drop on the 64 gig one. I know it won't be down to $200.00 but at 7, it is too steep for me. I have the 16 but need more room. Love all the HD podcasts.

The 16GB is sold out online at BestBuy US
Alot of the local stores are out as well.

Just make the price drop permanent RIM! I hate that I spent 200 bucks too much, but I'd rather see the price drop for good so that Playbook gains some market share. You can't compete at 499, RIM!!!

Wish they'd do similar offers in UK all models are still full price.

$299 sounds about right for now with the Kindle Fire (slower CPU, no cameras) at $199. BUT, you need to add $89 (I think) per year for the Amazon streaming media service to make full use of the K-Fire's features. This, of course brings the K-Fire's proce up to slighty less than the PlayBook's $299.

Both devices do different things and the K-Fire runs Android but cannot (yet) get to Google's Android store.

I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice.

I tell you what I don't like about this playbook, it's the fact that they are bringing that Android Player. That means they are essentially giving up on developers. I don't an android emulator on my tablet i want true and 100% QNX apps running on my tablet.

Everything about this device is beautiful yeah so they don't have thousands upon thousands of apps...how many fart soundboards do we really need?

While I am not glad the price is dropping for RIM's sake, I am glad the price is dropping for the consumer, I find the prices on these devices way over board. That said I do thank the early adopters of this device as they are the ones who typically decide the future of a device.

RIM like Apple puts out good quality and they don't have to copy anyone like Samsung I prefer to support companies that are original.

Sad, but PB is dead. I did not buy one, as I waited to see app support, OS improvements, etc. With the news today of how crippled the Android App Player will be, and the presser yesterday on the Kindle Fire, and the massive flood of other tablets (and ICS coming), well - it's over.

And to me, it's more dissapointing because this is pretty much what's going to happen to the BBs. Everyone and their mother has known that RIM's upcoming QNX phones need to be their saviour. Well, it's failing, relatively speaking, in the tablet world. And with Android's dominance, Apple's seemingly un-ending march with iOS and their world-famous marketing... RIM will soon be RIP. I hate to think about that, but it's more than just a possibility. It's more of a probability. If you are honest with yourself, you know this is true.

For those of you who state the PlayBook is "dead" then why is Best Buy stores sold out of them?
Check out the "in-store pick up" option for NYC

All Seven Stores show status of UNAVAILABLE for the 16, 32 and 64 GB models!
Sales seem to be improving for this "dead" product everyone is talking about.

I have had my 16GB since launch day. I use it every day in the office, and the commute home.
My kids use it to play games, and my 2 year old knows how to launch his movie and watch it in the car.
If the local Best Buy actually had any in stock, I would go pick up another one today. A 64Gb model for myself, and let the kids have the 16GB to play with.

Best Buy is sold out of the HP TouchPad, and it's dead, too.

How long has the Playbook been out now? And it still doesn't have an email client? That is why it's dead. I don't care if PB OS 2.0 comes out tomorrow. The fact that it has already taken this long after the PB was released just shows that RIM has not changed. Their inability to get phone OS updates out in a timely fashion, keeping up with the features on other vendors/platforms' phones is standard practice for RIM. The PB was their opportunity to change internally and then prove to us that they've changed. Instead, they've shown that they have not changed.

The Playbook is the Blackberry Storm of the tablet world. DOA, but receiving CPR for months, then ultimately dying.

Recent news is that playbook might be discountued. (see BGR.com) - This could be the start of the fire sale.

I would think they would wait it out with new pricing and the 2.0 launch but who knows.....

Has anyone seen the wal-mart commercial where they compare prices to other stores, do u think it'll work for me to go there and get my 16GB lol.

Its total crap...this thing blowwwss and soon wont even be made. Dont waste your time with the crap book

And to the person(s) who said their BB is the best messaging platform around, I say, you are just showing what you're ignorant of. I was a long time BB user. Hosted Exchange with BES. I got the most out of the messaging available on the BB - except BBM. I only used that for one-to-one chats. No group stuff or any of the more advanced things you can do with that.

Now, I've switched to a Thunderbolt (Android phone). On a point-by-point comparison, my Android messaging kicks the snot out of what I could do on a BB. And Hosted Exchange with ActiveSync is cheaper than BES. And my Unlimited data plan also dropped from $45/mo to $30/mo when I got rid of BES.

The simplest example of the Android superiority is that I can have multiple ActiveSync accounts on my phone. Separate Inboxes for each (one for work and one for my personal email), but combined calendar that shows both, plus my Facebook events, all color-coded by which account they came from, and combined Address book, which I can filter to only show contacts from select accounts, if I want.

To do the same with my Blackberry, it would have had to support being on multiple BES's at the same time - which Blackberry does not.

As always the discounts aren't available for the rest of the world. Best Buy Mexico is still selling the three PlayBook models at original price. We want discounts here too.

This thing should come free when you buy a Blckberry smartphone lol

As a day 1 playbook owner this makes me furious .

Costco Canada has the 16GB for $274.99

typing on it right now getting used to the touchscreen keuboard will be hard but itll be worth it

thanks rim!

There is still hope for the PB and it still holds a lot of potential but RIM needs to MAKE big time companies and developers build apps for the PB/BB that people are waiting for.... eg.. skype!

It is killing me that I am forced to abandon the BB ship and go elsewhere for my needs. And there are many people like me out there. We don't need a million apps, just a few more that everyone around the world is using. Basically they are now what Nintendo used to be: in house developed apps are rocking and giving people something they want but no backup from outside to make it all it can be.

Additionally what saddens me are the US-ONLY price drops. RIM needs to let PB prices drop all over the world. If they could only hold a "RIMPIRE STRIKES BACK CAMPAIGN" by lowering the 16gb model to 249 - 299 USD/EURO or sort-like prices around the world for about 1 month, at the time of OS2 release. Throw in a marketing campaign with that to emphasize what OS2 is all about (in a way that nobody thinks they need a TAB from other manufactures). I bet there are still a lot of "I want a tab but still waiting" people out there for grabs but you need to offer them a sweet deal to hop aboard the RIMwagon...or they will polarize to APPLE or ANDROID OS.

I just love how everyone is an instant expert on tablet sales because of the TouchPad fiasco and think the PB will be going the same route. Makes me chuckle every time I see "Wait for the PB fire sale..."

I think you'll be waiting a long time...

I had initially gotten the PB on launch day but promptly returned it because I just couldn't justify paying full price to beta test hardware. IMHO the PB is STILL in beta test but this recent price drop/sale has tipped the balance point over enough to where I feel comfortable buying one again.

Thanks Best Buy, RIM, The Easter Bunny!

OK, after reading so many posts about the Playbook, the iPad and many things more, I really have to wonder if some of you die-hard Playbook defenders are actually for real.
Yes, QNX is a great OS. Yes, the hardware of the Playbook is nice(not that special or great some of you claimed though). Yes, the display is very bright and can be used outdoors even in the brightest sunlight (actually one of my favorite features of the Playbook). Thats it. Nothing more.
QNX is great but apps availability is ridiculous. Some guy said that he lets his kids play with the Playbook. Great. What games ? There isn't ONE SINGLE decent game available. Not that it matters but check out the iPad 2. There are AT LEAST 50 HIGH QUALITY games, ranging from strategy to car racing to first person shooters, etc., absolutely amazing and in a quality which usually surpasses any portable gaming device. There are hundreds of other games which aren't that great but still better than ANYTHING I've seen on the Playbook.
Take business apps: There are great business/office apps for the iPad but only very few high quality business/office apps for the Playbook.
I live in Germany and there are a couple of banking apps available for the iPad 2. None available for the Playbook.
I could continue but the fact is: Apps play a huge role in the success of a tablet and right now, the Playbook sucks big time.
Another problem is also the fact that the Playbook doesn't offer a native mail/calendar/contact app yet, you need a Blackberry phone to be able to use these features. This is insane.
Bottom line is: The Playbook has a great display, a nice form factor, a good battery life but nothing really super special many Playbook die-hard defenders are bragging about. The camera(s) ? Really ? How many of you have used them for actually taking high quality photos or videos ?!
Fact is: Right now, the Playbook sucks from many points of view. Whoever doesn't realize this, doesn't actually know anything about tablets. I have them all, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, HTC Flyer...I can assure you that the Playbook isn't that special, especially not at the high price tag RIM was selling it from the start.
After introducing FW 2.0 with native mail/calendar/contact support and after reducing the price tag to 199,299 and 399 USD respectively, the Playbook could have a chance to survive.
Yes, the Amazon Kindle Fire has only 8GB capacity, no cameras and costs 199 USD but keep in mind that the Kindle Fire offers something the Playbook can't: CONTENT. HUGE amounts of content, including books, magazines, tv shows, movies and music.
Stop being dillusional about the Playbook, this doesn't help RIM at all. Customers aren't stupid and many have or had an iPad or an Android tablet in their hands to see the difference.
RIM needs to make a good deal on the Playbook and if they want to survive this tablet game, they need to offer more apps and more content. Since this very likely isn't going to happen, the Android player is very limited and doesn't offer Marketplace support, I think RIM should get out of the tablet market as soon as they can. I can't even see how they could survive with their phone business but they tablet war, they already lost for good.