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RIM offers free PlayBook tablets to enterprise customers

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:36PM EST
BGR

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Research In Motion on Thursday announced a new promotion that will make its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet available to enterprise customers for free. Businesses that upgrade to RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) v5.0 between now and December 31st will receive a free 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet along with their purchase. Additional incentives provide up to $400 off installation services through participating partners. Earlier this week, RIM announced a sale that makes the PlayBook tablet available to consumers for $300 below standard retail pricing. Sales of RIM’s debut tablet have been lackluster at best, with shipments into retail channels totaling 500,000 units during the PlayBook’s first quarter of availability and just 200,000 units last quarter. As interest in RIM’s tablet tapers, sales of its latest smartphones stall and the company continues to burn through cash at an alarming rate, price drops and promotions appear to make up much of RIM’s strategy as it continues to tread water until the first round of BBX phones is ready to launch.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.