We noted earlier today that Best Buy had stopped selling the BlackBerry PlayBook at the $199+ discount price and wondered what was going on. Customers complained of their orders being cancelled and some thought Best Buy was pulling the PlayBook from its store. Turns out there is a different much simpler reason. Best Buy put out the following statement about the PlayBook confirmed by RIM:
Starting Sunday, November 20th, Best Buy offered $300 instant savings to the BlackBerry PlayBook, reducing the price to $299.99 and $199.99 for the 32 GB and 16 GB, respectively. Customers have responded very positively to this short-term promotion available until Dec. 3 and, as a result, we are currently sold out of our inventory. We will have additional units available in the near future, at which time customers will be able to purchase the devices online at www.bestbuy.com.
The other interesting thing is that RIM’s own Shop BlackBerry site has this message on their BlackBerry PlayBook page:
Notice to Customers: Due to high volume of PlayBook orders, orders may take up to 7 days to ship.
In other words it looks like the BlackBerry PlayBook market is growing fast!
