The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

RIM has taken an axe to the prices it charges for its BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in the UK - again.

You can now pick up the 16GB version of just £169. It was priced at £399 at launch, and yesterday would have set you back £249. That's roughly a third off in 24 hours.

The 32GB now costs £199, the 64GB tablet £249, down from £479 and £559, respectively.

A variety of retailers, including Carphone Warehouse and Dixons, have just applied the new prices.

RIM knocked £150 off the original prices in October 2011 in a bid to boost demand for the 7in tablets. Punters have not taken to the machine.

It didn't do much good, and just as October's cut followed a big price reduction in the States, so this latest round of reductions comes after RIM discounted again over there.

Best Buy may be a giant force in the U.S., one that contributed to the downfall of Circuit City, but in the U.K., not so much. Reports are that Carphone Warehouse (CWG) will announce that it will close its 11 Best Buy superstores in the U.K.

The announcement is expected to come when CWG makes its half-year fiscal report on Tuesday. Best Buy U.K. is a division of Best Buy Europe, which is a 50:50 joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy. Plans were to launch 200 stores across the Europe by 2013, but in June the number was scaled back to 100, but the number stopped at just 11 in the U.K.

Already, the shops have racked up losses of £83m, and another half-year loss of £35m is expected to be announced this coming week. However, the partnership isn't going to be dissolved completely. Small Best Buy sub-stores are being planned for introduction inside Carphone Warehouse outlets. At the same time, the Best Buy U.K. website still exists.

Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy Europe released the following statement in response to the reports:

"We always said we would open 11 stores and then conduct a strategy review. We are now conducting our evaluation with our partners and will provide an update in due course."