RIM has dropped the price of their PlayBook tablet, again, actually bringing the device down to a price where buyers may step up and purchase it.
Following the second slash in under 6 months, the 16GB model now sells retail for $199, the 32GB for $249 and the 64GB model for $299.
At $199, the price makes the tablet appealing, especially when compared to the current champion in the 7-inch market, the Amazon Kindle Fire. The PlayBook has double the storage, HDMI ouput, dual cameras, a mic, GPS and other features not seen on the newer Fire.
There is one major catch, however. The Playbook runs on the PlayBook OS, which could discontinued at any time, literally, especially as the tablet continues to catch little traction.
Regardless, RIM is expected to launch their Playbook 2.0 OS later this year in a final effort to make a dent in the tablet market dominated by Apple and Android.
Result for: amazon
According to BI, Yahoo would be willing to purchase on-demand streaming TV service Hulu for $2 billion, as long as certain demands are met.
Hulu is owned by Disney (ABC), News Corp. (Fox), Comcast (NBCU) and private equity firm Providence.
Yahoo is only willing to make the deal if Hulu guarantees them 4-5 years of exclusive access to the media content.
Hulu, on the other hand, seems to be only willing to give 2 years of exclusivity, albeit with 5 years guaranteed access to the content.
Says one source:
If [Hulu's content creating owners] came out and said, we’ve renewed [Hulu's exclusive rights] for four years at the same terms we have today – it’s really easy to model [a valuation between] $1 billion and $2 billion – maybe more.
Without four or five years of exclusive streaming rights to TV shows and movies, Hulu is not worth anything.
If Hulu does offer 5 year exclusivity, Yahoo would have enough time to “build enough equity with consumers that you’ve created a real leader in premium content and premium advertising,” adds the source.
Without exclusivity, Yahoo (and other bidders) could simply just bid for the rights to stream the content in the future, as it would cost significantly less. In fact, when the exclusivity period for Hulu’s current content ends, Google and Amazon are expected to bid hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights.
Result for: amazon
Barnes & Noble, the proud owners of the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever, are giving users even more incentive to pick up a new Nook.
As of this weekend, anyone who walks into a Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store with a rival e-reader and purchases a new Nook Color or Nook Simple Touch will be given a 2GB microSD card filled with “$315″ worth of free e-books.
A few of the 30 books provided are classics like “Robinson Crusoe” and “Don Quixote” and you can check the full list here: 30 Free Nook books
The Nook Color (more of a tablet than an e-reader, retails for $250 and the brand-new Nook Simple Touch (the highest-rated dedicated e-reader, ever) retails for just $140.
Barnes & Noble is of course hoping that many will show off their old Amazon Kindle and “upgrade” to the Nook Simple, and the cheap promotion should also help drive foot traffic to the struggling stores.
