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.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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