Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) announced on Tuesday that its iPad rival, the PlayBook, would go on sale next month at a price identical to that of the hot-selling Apple tablet computer.
The BlackBerry PlayBook will be available at Best Buy and other stores in the US and Canada on April 19, the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM said in a statement. Orders could be placed online as of Tuesday.
RIM is offering three models of the PlayBook. A version with 16 gigabytes of storage will cost US$499, a 32GB model will sell for US$599 and one with 64GB will cost US$699. The prices are the same as for comparable models of the iPad.
The PlayBook features Wi-Fi connectivity to the Internet while Apple sells both Wi-Fi and 3G versions of the iPad.
“Tablets are becoming a bigger part of our business everyday and the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook will heighten the level of excitement in this category,” said Scott Anderson, head of merchandising for Best Buy Mobile.
RIM describes the PlayBook as the first “professional-grade” -tablet and has stressed its integration with its BlackBerry smartphone, a favorite among many business users.
The PlayBook is RIM’s first foray outside the mobile phone realm.
BlackBerry users can pair their handset with the PlayBook using a Bluetooth connection to view their e-mail, calendar, documents or other content.
The PlayBook has a 17.8cm touchscreen, smaller than the iPad’s 24.7cm, but includes Adobe Flash video software, which is banned from the Apple device.
At less than 425g, the PlayBook is lighter than the iPad 2’s 590g and is also thinner.
It features front and rear-facing cameras for video conferencing, a feature which was added to the iPad 2, which went on sale in the US on March 11.
Apple said on Tuesday that the iPad 2 would go on sale in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea next month, and will be available in 25 other countries tomorrow.
The iPad 2 had been scheduled to go on sale in Japan tomorrow, but Apple announced last week that it was delaying the sale of the iPad 2 there because of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said there had been strong demand for the iPad 2 in the US.
“While competitors are still struggling to catch up with our first iPad, we’ve changed the game again with iPad 2,” Jobs said in an Apple statement. “We’re experiencing amazing demand for iPad 2 in the US, and customers around the world have told us they can’t wait to get their hands on it.”
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and we are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone,” said Jobs, who went on medical leave in January for an unspecified illness.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last