BlackBerry PlayBook arriving at Office Depot on April 19th

By on Mar 30, 2011 at 2:21 AM
Retail March 30, 2011

Research In Motion’s first QNX-powered device — the BlackBerry PlayBook — will be hitting a plethora of retailers beginning next month, and Office Depot has officially thrown its proverbial hat into the ring. Via a press release, the retailer has announced that beginning April 19th customers can purchase the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB PlayBooks for $499, $599, and $699 respectively. “Office Depot provides customers with the most innovative lineup of products that will help them take care of business, and the BlackBerry PlayBook is certainly one of those game-changing products,” said Randy Wick, the company’s Vice President of Merchandising. “There has been a lot of buzz and excitement for the BlackBerry PlayBook to hit the market, and we are thrilled to be one of the first retailers to offer this professional-grade tablet.” RIM’s first tablet venture will be available at Office Depot’s retail stores and online at officedepot.com. The full press release is after the break.

Office Depot to Offer the New BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet In-Store and Online Starting April 19

Customers Can Pre-Order the Playbook Today by Visiting OfficeDepot.com

BOCA RATON, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), celebrating 25 years as a leading global provider of office supplies and services, today announced that the Company will offer the highly anticipated BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet at nationwide Office Depot retail store locations and online at http://www.officedepot.com beginning April 19, 2011.

“There has been a lot of buzz and excitement for the BlackBerry PlayBook to hit the market, and we are thrilled to be one of the first retailers to offer this professional-grade tablet.”
Customers can secure a PlayBook in advance of the launch through a pre-order starting today at http://www.officedepot.com.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is the world’s first professional-grade tablet. It delivers industry leading performance in an ultra-portable design. In addition to offering true multitasking, HD multimedia, advanced security features, and out-of-the-box enterprise support, the BlackBerry PlayBook enables an uncompromised web browsing experience with support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, allowing customers to enjoy all the websites, videos, games, and just about any other content that is out there.

“Office Depot provides customers with the most innovative lineup of products that will help them take care of business, and the BlackBerry PlayBook is certainly one of those game-changing products,” said Randy Wick, Vice President of Merchandising for Office Depot. “There has been a lot of buzz and excitement for the BlackBerry PlayBook to hit the market, and we are thrilled to be one of the first retailers to offer this professional-grade tablet.”

The BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi® is available in three models: 16GB ($499), 32GB ($599), and 64GB ($699).

BlackBerry PlayBook specifications include the following:

  • 7″1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
  • Ultra-portable at less than a pound and less than one-half inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g) and 5.1” x 7.6” x 0.4” (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
  • 1 GHz dual-core processor
  • BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
  • MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
  • Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
  • 1080p HDMI out
  • Dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture
  • 1 GB RAM memory
  • Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
  • GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
  • Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
  • Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
  • Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support

To learn more about the products and services available at Office Depot, please visit your local Office Depot retail store location or http://www.officedepot.com. To become a fan of Office Depot on Facebook and receive exclusive content, offers and more, please visit http://www.facebook.com/officedepot. To follow Office Depot on Twitter, please visit http://www.twitter.com/officedepot.

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  • bigbudha

    just like the xoom, epic fail.

    • Jordan

      ^ epic c0ck sucker

      • bigbudha

        like your mom

      • VZguest

        it failed because your mom can’t even buy you one?

    • Whee365

      Except this one is 7″….oh wait…except this one has killer ap…oh wait…it’s got a 1080p front camera! Kicks the Zooms butt!

  • reader

    I personally like the playbook, just wished it had a bigger screen. Should be an interesting time for RIM

    • Actual PlayBook User

      I love my PlayBook. Having used many tablets, this one has taken a fresh approach: Don’t stretch a mobile device bigger. Take a workstation and shrink it to tablet size. Make it secure. Bring added value to the smartphone you already own. Give it a powerful OS that can make the most of multi-core processors and add features that no other tablet has. Price it at $500 and up.

      Even BGR commented at CES, “The PlayBook looks and feels better than the iPad.” It does. The screen is gorgeous. The stereo speakers sound great. Multitasking is fantastic.

      • ASJ

        How much did RIM pay you to write this comment?

        How can you even compare this to the iPad? You can check your email on an iPad. You can manage your contacts on an iPad. Plus, it’s a familiar user interface. Current Blackberry owners will have to “learn” how to use this device so say goodbye to seamless integration between phone and tablet.

        Good luck with that RIM.

      • Anonymous

        Wow, you really hang your hat on this whole native mail and contact thingy. What in the world will you say when RIM delivers the native email/contact app in the very near future (maybe an Android app developer will be kind enough to hurry this up??). As for the familiar user interface argument, most people have this amazing ability to learn and integrate. How long did it take you to use the iPhone or iPod Touch when you first got it? Actually, don’t answer that. Anyways, if you think the user interface on the iPad is same as on the iPod Touch and iPhone, maybe people are right. iPad is just a stretched out version of its smaller siblings.

  • Michael Scrip

    At least RIM has the smarts to put the Playbook in Office Depot… a store that doesn’t carry the iPad.

    Customers won’t be able to easily compare them side-by-side to see how much smaller the Playbook is to the iPad… for the same prices.

    But wait… the Playbook has twice the RAM as the iPad… it’s sell twice as much, right?

    • Anonymous

      No one thinks the PlayBook will sell anywhere near the amount that the iPad sells. That doesn’t mean the iPad is a better product.

      • Michael Scrip

        – “No one thinks the PlayBook will sell anywhere near the amount that the iPad sells. That doesn’t mean the iPad is a better product.”

        Wouldn’t more people buy the better product? How do you measure “better” anyway?

        I’ve heard people say the iPod was a horrible MP3 player… and that there were other MP3 players with better sound quality.

        But… the iPod had its own music store. That was a BIG deal. It’s hard to compare that to all the others, huh.

      • Anonymous

        No, people don’t always buy better products. If they did, people would be buying organic food rather than preservative filled processed food. People would be buying a sensible minivan rather than a gas guzzling Hummer. Some things are universally good. I’m afraid iPad isn’t one of them. More isn’t always better.

    • Anonymous

      Since when did the screen real estate determine price? Do you look at the world this way? By your logic, iPhone 4 should cost about 1/3 of iPad 2. Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t operate that way. Come back from the edge, don’t go towards the light.

      • Michael Scrip

        It just seems like RIM could have tried to compete on price. That IS something that the real world operates on.

        For the same price the iPad gets you get a larger screen. Plus… all the apps, accessories, and it’s the thing you’ve actually heard of for the past year.

      • Anonymous

        Better accessories? Okay, I’ll give you that. All the apps? True to your form, you go for size/volume/quantity over substance. How about if I say PB is thicker. That would make up for the screen size, no? Plus, PB will soon have access to Android apps. I imagine all the top selling Android apps will be making their way to the BB App World soon enough. However, I have to admit PB will have whole lot less accessories.

      • Michael Scrip

        – “All the apps? True to your form, you go for size/volume/quantity over substance”

        Quantity over substance? Right… the iPad app store is full of fart apps… and the Android market is full of wallpapers. Isn’t that the old saying?

        The truth is… iPad apps are, in fact, awesome. I don’t own an iPad… but the iPad apps I have played with are very nice. Lots of time is spent making decent iPad apps.

        – “Plus, PB will soon have access to Android apps. I imagine all the top selling Android apps will be making their way to the BB App World soon enough.”

        I heard that only Froyo/Gingerbread apps are making their way to the PlayBook. So, while that does increase the amount of apps available on the Playbook… they will mostly be phone apps… not tablet apps.

        If people wanted phone apps blown up to a larger tablet screen… the 7″ Galaxy Tab would have been a top seller.

        Everyone was so sure the Galaxy Tab was awesome. Then after it didn’t have any apps… everyone changed their tune to say “now we’re waiting for the REAL Android tablet OS… Honeycomb.”

        So… I don’t think Android phone apps on the Playbook are a big deal.

  • isheep r us

    Better processor, BeTTER RAM BETTER CAMERAS BETTER UI, more portable,has flash ,direct hdmi port with no need of a dongle,supports android apps, symetric multitasking, but the isheep has to find something to hate about it.they must.

    • Anonymous

      I just love how people scream about the superior specs and user experience about a device that nobody has even reviewed yet.

      • stranger

        Even better are the people who scream how it sucks and nobody has reviewed it yet.

      • Anonymous

        +10 *cricket*

    • Anonymous

      And the best, requiring a bb for pim functionality. I can’t live without that.

  • Anonymous

    The PlayBook will be remembered as the device that killed RIM.

    Instead of focusing on their phones, they took their eye of the ball and tried to dethrone the iPad, That will prove to be a fatal error. In the meantime Android and iOS phones gobble up RIM phone marketshare every second.

    Every single person I know has returned their XOOM and is now in the market for an iPad 2, look for a similar pattern with the PlayBook, except for corporate users forced to use the PlayBook. Sort of like their last iOS device killer, the Storm.

    • Anonymous

      I guess we shouldn’t underestimate the potential sales to corporate users. As much as RIM thinks they are a consumer company, their mainstay has been those folks shackled by their IT departments to Blackberry….

      Given a choice, even those corp users would be using anything but a Blackberry these days. This Playbook device could be a game changer due primarily to the switch to a different OS, something that RIM should have done 4 years ago.

      • E-Man

        I work in the financial district in Toronto, and those who do not have a company phone most often buy Blackberry. The change in OS is much more needed for the consumer market.

      • Hi

        Obviously you don’t pay attention to RIMs quarterly financial calls which clearly state consumer vs. business purchases.

      • Anonymous

        I always love comments like these as they know nothing about supporting a large mobile device deployment and the costs and support involved.

        Here’s a thought. We offer our corp users a company paid Blakcberry or they can foot the bill and pay for any device they’d like under our BYOT program. We’re still giving out Blackberrys 9 out of 10 times. People like to bitch until they have skin in the game.

      • Doh!

        Not sure where you’re getting your info but you’re about 2 years behind. Catch up!

  • Anonymous

    I plan on buying a Playbook soon. The smaller screen is what I’m looking for. I would not underestimate RIM. I think the smaller screen will be very attractive to many.
    I’m impressed by the specs, which clearly outshine the Ipad. Bridging the Playbook to my phone is a great idea. I can get internet without buying another monthly plan.

    • http://blogs.blackberry.com Alex Kinsella

      Hi @PastorVernon,

      Alex from RIM here. Glad to hear you’re looking forward to the ultra-portable PlayBook. At 7 inches, 0.9 pounds and 0.4 inches thin, the PlayBook makes one-handed or ‘thumb typing’ easy. And with its compact size, I’ve literally watched people smile as they slip the PlayBook into a jacket pocket or purse. In my experience giving demos, people are finding that the touch-sensitive 7-inch screen creates a superior 1080p HD multimedia experience with its 1,024 x 600 high resolution display and 3MP/5MP cameras (front/back), enabling HD video recording and videoconferencing.

      Check out this video from a recent event in New York City to help visualize what I’m talking about (http://bbry.lv/ifElYd).

      Cheers,

      Alex, RIM Social Media Team

      • Anonymous

        Thanks Alex. The 7″ size is exactly what I’m looking for. Appreciate the video. I’ll be a proud owner soon.

      • Anonymous

        I really hope you’re a masochist Alex.

        Because, otherwise, you’re in for a world of hurt this month.

  • PolarBear

    I really don’t understand why there is so much negativity and name calling here.

    I like the PlayBook and will buy one. Because from what I see, it meets all of my needs for both work and play. As far as apps are concerned; I only need and use about 10 apps. So having a smaller core of more productivity driven apps that are high quality is much more appealing than having to sift through tens of thousands of apps that are simply “noise”.

    It kind of reminds me of when I try to get one of my kids to eat a new food they’ve never had before. Sometimes one of the others will say something like “Oh, you’re not going to like that.” and then prattles on about why they shouldn’t or won’t like that particular food because it’s yucky. I have to tell the other kid to be quiet and let him/her try it themselves and make up their own mind. And you know what? They usually do.

    not,

    • Tony

      I think its pretty obvious why so many people on here whine like little girls. Its because

      A) They use Apple products so they actually are little girls (or girly little men)

      B) They are Android fanboys, so being the nerds that they are, they talk trash online about operating systems in between World of Warcraft quests.

      • Anonymous

        So which one are you? You seem to take a shot at all the people left alive. Not many blackberry fans left alive anymore. By the way, that’s been all RIM’s doing. They’ve literally screwed up their company… It wasn’t google or apple. It was all RIM.

      • Hi

        No, not many….only about 60 million.

      • Tony

        you do realize when you call yourself a “goo fan” it amazes everyone that your keyboard isn’t too sticky to type…………oh wait, thaaaaaaat’s why you have a touch screen.

      • Anonymous

        Well, @Tony, that’s the nature of us Goofans.

        1. Our keyboards are sticky.
        2. We live in our mom’s basements.
        3. We are 20-30 times smarter than you and all the BB and Apple Fanboys around the world.

        That’s a fact buddy!

      • Tony

        @Goofan hahaha nicely handled

    • http://blogs.blackberry.com Alex Kinsella

      Hi @PolarBear,

      Alex from RIM here. For productivity, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides loads of functionality out of the box. It’s capable of remote PC access, document viewing and editing, and secure VPN access, which allows you to access enterprise data and applications just like you would with a laptop — except the ultra-portable PlayBook is a 7-inch device that weighs 0.9 pounds and is 0.4 inches thin, and can slide into a jacket pocket or purse.

      Another key feature that goes to usability: the PlayBook was designed with real-world web browsing in mind. Our BlackBerry Tablet OS is open and supports millions of Flash and HTML5 web sites, making it a powerful – and truly portable – tool for work and play.

      Cheers,
      Alex, RIM Social Media Team

  • max

    Let’s face it, BB Morons, this thing will sell about as well as a dog shit sammich. It’s too small to be useful too big to be portable. Smartphones are almost this size.4″ of screen, 20″ of border. I’m sure BB Morons are used to that though they probably still watch 12″ black and white tv’s and use those ginormous crt monitors. Just like a BB moron. Living in the past. My old 2005 8703e does everything a new BB does that you morons claim is all you need from a smartphone. Everything. Messaging check. BBM check. Push email check. Not apps or music or video but you morons have always always claimed you didn’t need that. Tech imbeciles.

    • Anonymous

      Morons

    • Anonymous

      How can you say a 4 inch smartphone is almost the size of a 7inch Tablet, yet a 7 inch Tablet isn’t close in size to a 10inch Tablet? Percentage wise, the 7 inch tablet is closer to the 10 inch tablet.

    • Tony

      You spelled “sandwich” wrong

      • Anonymous

        lol…he was playing with the word sandwich and saying sammich…its pretty popular in America

    • Bobdonhim

      7″ is too big to be portable? So what is the iPad at 10″??? A billboard?

      What about the very poor camera’s on the iPad 2? Or the lack of true multitasking because iOS doesnt support multi-core computing? If you are going to reply to EVERY PlayBook story, at least start coming up with new arguments since I continually squash the couple you keep spewing out.

      • max

        No, moron. Apple isn’t touting “portability”. The moron-book is.

    • Anonymous

      Max, are you without a job and live in your parents basement? Your post is the most uneducated post I’ve read on here lately. Get a job. You have too much free time on your hands.
      You are the moron.

      • max

        I will let the sales figures of this dog crap speak for itself. Even CNN headline: Playbook tablet may face uphill fight. Every tech blog knows it. Everyone but ostrich BB morons.

  • Gladys

    BBPBFTW

  • Anonymous

    When they say it might run Android apps what do they really mean, Android apps for Smartphones or the tablet apps for honeycomb 3.0. I hope they’re not talking about apps for 3.0 cause Steve jobs lied big time when he said they where about 100 apps for android tablets, it’s more like 15 at the moment and they suck big time.

    • Anonymous

      All it means is that any Android developer will be able to port their app to the PlayBook with about 1 line of code added.

    • Anonymous

      Steve Jobs lies about everything! He’s the ONLY executive in the world that lies in tech. You would NEVER EVER catch Eric Schmidt saying lies, not even a white little fib! Larry Page, hah, I have been assured that as a child he would rather go on time out than to say one little lie! That my friends, is Google. Oh, and I forgot, when I applied for a job at Google, they asked me if I had lied ONCE in my life and I said yes, they turned me down, because of that! That is the power of open and freedom.

      • Funny…

        Was Ayn Rand the interviewer?

  • FuryAminal

    And to be arriving at all Marshall’s and TJ Maxx locations by summer.

  • Anonymous

    And here’s the BGR/RIM connection.

    The rest of the industry is watching RIM try to pull off an iPad killer, they’ve put out such amazing iPhone killers already, since they’ve declared “Mission Accomplished” on killing the iPhone, they’ve moved on to killing the iPad.

    Insert facepalm pic here…

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