Blackberry Playbook 4G LTE Tablet PC Appears in Canada

On August 9, RIM announced the price for the previously announced new BlackBerry Playbook 4G LTE tablet. Sales have now started in Canada, in the networks of Bell, Telus and Rogers Wireless at a price of 350 Canadian dollars with a three-year contract, or 550 dollars without a contract (554 US dollars).

What does RIM offer us this time for such a price?

If you look for external differences, then you are unlikely to find them - the tablet looks exactly the same as its predecessor, the BlackBerry Playbook Wi-Fi, with the exception of the sim card tray at the bottom. The tablet retained the same screen resolution - 1024 x 600 pixels, at a size of 7 inches. It has the same 2 cameras - front for 3 Mp and rear for 5 Mp, which can record video in 1080p resolution. Equipped with 1 gigabyte of RAM.

Change in terms of filling.

Of course, as is evident from the name of the tablet, now it boasts the presence of a module for working in mobile networks. The processor still has two cores, but the frequency has changed, it has been increased from 1GHz to 1.5GHz.
The new Playbook comes with only 32 gigabytes of memory on board — no more, no less, unlike its younger brother, which can be purchased for needs with 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of memory.
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Let me remind you that the Canadian manufacturer of equipment is not doing very well lately - the announced new smartphones are delayed with the release until 2013, the first generation of their tablet has not had enough success, sales of equipment continue to fall. In the network, I’ve skipped information that RIM is even thinking about licensing its platform for smartphones to other equipment manufacturers.

Will a new tablet shoot?

I think not. The niche is densely occupied by other manufacturers who pursue a more aggressive marketing policy. Yes, the new Apple iPad is inferior to the playbook in mobility, but makes it popular, the screen resolution and an incomparably greater ecosystem of applications (at the moment there are just over 15,000 applications in the Blackberry store), the same as in comparison with Samsung.
New Google Nexus 7, though it has 8 gigabytes of memory (in the initial configuration), but takes its much lower price and better screen resolution - 1280 x 800.

Most likely, the tablet will find its customers only from among the adherents of the Blackberry technology, or those who are interested in “feeling” something new. But here it is worth considering whether the availability of a module for work on mobile networks is so critical, or you can get by with almost the same tablet of the previous generation, especially since the price for it now is only $ 200 (for the version with 16 gigabytes of memory)

PS: I ask you not to judge strictly due to late information, but unfortunately for lack of karma I could not publish it earlier.