Blackberry PlayBook tablet prices slashed to $200

One day after Amazon unveiled a tablet computer with a $199 price tag, major US retailers have slashed the price of the PlayBook tablet from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion by up to $200.

One day after Amazon unveiled a tablet computer with a $199 price tag, major US retailers have slashed the price of the PlayBook tablet from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion by up to $200.

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Sales of the PlayBook have been sluggish since the device went on sale in mid-April with a $499 price tag for the 16-gigabyte model, $599 for the 32GB version and $699 for the 64GB model.

Best Buy, Staples and OfficeMax were offering the PlayBook for $299, $399 and $499 on Thursday. Office Depot was selling the device for $100 off.

The PlayBook was still being offered for its original price, however, at RIM's online store and through US carrier Sprint.

Online retail giant Amazon launched a tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, on Wednesday which costs $199, less than half the price of the market-leading iPad from Apple.

The cheapest iPad costs $499.

During its last earnings report RIM said it had shipped 200,000 PlayBooks during the quarter. Analysts had expected shipments of 700,000.

Apple sold 9.25 million iPads last quarter.