Canadian RIM fans have been privy to some solid deals on RIM’s ailing PlayBook tablet recently, and now those price cuts are beginning to pop up Stateside. Both Office Depot and Staples are now offering their selection of PlayBooks with some significant discounts.
Office Depot’s website has the 16 GB model going for $399.99 — $100 off the tablet’s original price. The discount comes off immediately, and customers also get a $100 OfficeDepot gift card, but the card has to be claimed via an obnoxious mail-in rebate. The bigger models in their lineup also benefit from the price break, with the 32 GB and 64 GB models going for $399 and $499, respectively.
Staples.com offers the exact same deal, but with a bit of a twist: instead of getting a Staples-only gift card, customers instead get a $100 prepaid debit card that be used anywhere. Since Staples considers the card the same as cash, they’re advertising their 16 GB PlayBooks as having a final price of $299. Again, the same sort of price break applies to the other 2 models.
Interestingly, the best deal to be had only works if you’re willing to do some legwork. The folks over on the SlickDeals forums report that if you choose to hoof it to your nearest brick-and-mortar store, you’ll be able save an additional $50 off the top of your purchase, bringing the price for a 16 GB PlayBook down to $249 after all is said and done. Sure, you could call Staples.com’s customer service line to have them price match against your local store, but where’s the fun in that?
With the TouchPad debacle still fresh in people’s minds, some people are almost certainly holding off on deals like this until the PlayBook price hits fire-sale levels. I can’t say I blame them, considering how some got burned for jumping on a deal just a bit too soon. These sales are slated to last until the end of the week, but it’s probably only a matter of time before other retailers get the go-ahead to slash their own PlayBook prices.