The BlackBerry PlayBook from RIM is finally arriving in Singapore. First launched in the US on April 19 earlier this year, the 7-inch tablet computer will officially be launched in Singapore on Wednesday, Jun 8.
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook launches in Singapore this Wed, June 8, 2011.
The beta version of the BlackBerry Playbook was first unveiled during the Adobe Max 2010 developer conference in October last year. It was first seen in Singapore when two advanced beta prototypes were specially flown in and displayed as part of the Adobe Refresh Roadshow on March 10.
Four days prior to its official launch in the US on April 19, a special preview was held in a BlackBerry PlayBook Bus in Singapore on April 15. Two days from now – and almost two months after the US launch – the PlayBook will hit the shelves in Singapore.
Prices for the 16, 32 and 64-gigabyte models in the US are $500, $600, and $700 respectively. We’ll see what these will translate to in Singapore.
The PlayBook has received a mixed reaction since its launch in the US. The most common complaint has been its lack of native email, messenger, contacts and calendar apps, relying on Bluetooth tethering to access these functionalities via a BlackBerry handset. Other grouses include the lack of 3G/4G, and the relatively small repository of PlayBook specific apps in BlackBerry App World.
On the other end of the scale, the PlayBook features a lightning fast processor, capable of true multi-tasking, has a fabulous display and user interface, and supports both Flash and HTML5. In fact, some analysts have observed that the first day sales of the PlayBook has beaten that for Motorola Xoom and Galaxy Tab.
It’ll be interesting to hear the latest progress for the PlayBook during the Singapore launch the day after tomorrow.
Tags: BlackBerry, launch, Playbook, RIM, Singapore