BlackBerry PlayBook Pre-Orders now available

By Ray Nicolini

This is a moment we've all been waiting for; the PlayBook release is headed our way finally! After months of waiting and speculation, Best Buy is finally accepting pre-orders for RIM's BlackBerry Playbook. 

Similar to the Apple iPad, the PlayBook will come in three sizes including 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage at $499, $599 and $699 respectively. 

"Previews of the BlackBerry PlayBook have generated tremendous excitement and we know that customers are eager to get their hands on one," said Craig McLennan, Regional Managing Director, North America, Research In Motion. "We share that excitement and we are very pleased to announce that customers can begin placing their orders with Best Buy today."

The BlackBerry PlayBook prides itself on being the world's first "professional-grade tablet." It's design is portable and its operating systems leads in performance with its high-end web browser with Adobe, Flash, and Player 10.1 support, multitasking, high-definition multimedia features, security features, and out-of-the-box support.

You can choose to pre-order the PlayBook in stores or online at the following websites:
US -www.bestbuy.com/playbook
Canada -BlackBerry Store - Best Buy Canada

Gateway LT3108H at Best Buy Canada

Here at TorontoWireless if there is one thing we pride ourselves with is being as flexible as possible, this is very different from the experience of large box stores such as Best Buy Canada. On Wednesday I received a Best Buy flyer for their store opening sale, and I found myself getting excited as I am a bit of a technophile (PC Desktop, netbook, HTPC, dSLR, and so on). Leafing through the Best Buy Store Opening flyer I noticed they had a door crasher special for the Gateway LT3108H Athlon64 powered netbook with an 11.6inch screen for just $299!!!! (regularly $449), the very netbook I had been drooling over since I read the first review of. The only problem with door crasher specials is you have to be there extremely early in the morning to line up, and working full time here at TorontoWireless the last thing I was going to do is take today off. After resolving that I wouldn't take the day off to drive out to Best Buy and line up at 5AM in the morning (given the fact they only had 10 units). I did however decide to look around the Best Buy Canada website out of curiosity to see what else they had to offer. While looking around their website I came across the same Gateway LT3108H netbook for just $349 (still $100 off) for their anniversary sale, however they had already sold out of the product online. Not only had Best Buy Canada sold out of the units the sale ends on October 21st! Had the sale been for one more day I would have purchased the netbook after work at the Newmarket location. Given the fact that I couldn't justify $449 for this netbook (I bought my Acer Apire One for $329 in August 2008) I decided to try two things. The first was to call Best Buy Canada's customer service and see if I could somehow purchase the product the following day in the store with the discounted price. Unfortunately this didn't work out as the Best Buy head office (or at least customer service) has no say into what happens in Best Buy Canada's retail locations. The second thing I decided to do was when the Best Buy store opened the following day (today) to call and talk to someone in the computers department to see if they would honour the sale price and put the last one on hold, unfortunately as I was read the stock script that Best Buy Canada's flyers change on a weekly basis, and there was now a new flyer with new deals. So thus ends my aspirations of buying this affordable netbook from Best Buy. Now here at TorontoWireless we are happiest when our readers are happy. As the head of sales here I have been known to work with clients that haggle, bend over backwards to get new clients, and make executive decisions whenever client issues arise. This whole experience with Best Buy Canada has rather soured me to their corporate brand. It also made me reflect on the idea of what would happen if they offered SEO Services, and how they would treat their clients with a one size fits all mentality (whereas we recognize that all clients are different, and have different needs). All I have to say is Best Buy Canada Sucks for their customer experience!

UpDate: Best Buy near where I live put the last one on hold and honoured the $349.99 price for me