UK retailer offering 32GB PlayBook tablet for Rs. 13,000 approx

Playbook, the tablet made by Research In Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of the BlackBerry line of phones, hasn't seen much success. There have been several drops in its price over the past few months, and it now seems as if the 32 GB version is selling at as low as 150 pounds (around Rs. 13,000) in the UK. It's being sold by PC World, an online store. When RIM had introduced their BlackBerry PlayBook last year, they had made the tablet available in three storage capacites - 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Towards the end of 2011, RIM slashed the rates of their slates and the lowest model, the 16GB version was available for as low as Rs. 13,490, as part of a limited time offer.

The PlayBook tablet sports a 7-inch display and runs on a 1 GHz dual-core processor. Some of the other specs of the PlayBook tablet include:

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording, Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV

PlayBook tablet, as on the store's listing

In March this year, Research in Motion officially slashed the prices of the 64 GB version of their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in India by a whopping 18 percent, taking the price all the way down to Rs.19,990. Late in November last year, we had also reported about all units of the PlayBook tablet being sold off on Best Buy, after stunning Black Friday promotions. Back then, RIM had re-priced the tablets to $199.99 and $299.99 for the 16 GB and 32 GB models respectively, which many believe to have triggered the massive sales figures. However, RIM killed off the 16 GB version of the BlackBerry PlayBook, disappointing several hopefuls.

The Canada-based company recently pushed back the launch of BB10 to early next year. The picture of the future for the company continues to pale, as the delay would mean missing out on both the crucial back-to-school and Christmas shopping periods - a time when its competitors will continue to bring out more phones. The company also had to cut down prices of their PlayBook tablet.

RIM has a 4G LTE version of the PlayBook in the pipeline, and as per reports, the Canadian company is set to launch it soon.