Here’s something we didn’t expect to read: RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook outsold the iPad here in the UK throughout the final two months of 2012.
The figures come from Context; a company that closely monitors the distribution of electrical goods here in the UK. Although not every single sale is monitored by Context, the company does cover a huge range of retailers and distributors.
According to their figures, the BlackBerry PlayBook shifted 160,000 units to Apple’s 113,000 of the newest iPad, the iPad 4. It’s an impressive feat carried out by RIM, but when you take a look at the price difference it’s easy to see how it happened.
With the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 launch and the poor sales of the PlayBook early in 2012 prices of the tablet began to fall, with even the largest 64GB PlayBook being reduced to just £129 for most of the year. When you compare that to the cheapest 16GB iPad 4 at £399, it’s going to be a no-brainer to some who just wanted to get a tablet computer for somebody this past Christmas.
The PlayBook has been confirmed to be upgradeable to BlackBerry 10; RIM’s latest and greatest operating system that launches later today. The Canadian company is expected to launch new tablets to coincide with the new software, but right now the PlayBook represents the cheapest way to get the new OS.
Stay tuned later today for our coverage of the BlackBerry 10 launch, where we expect to see the new Z10 and X10 phones revealed.