Following Research In Motion’s performance in the second quarter, the company promised to drop prices for its BlackBerry PlayBook in an effort to boost sales. The company has indeed dropped the price for the tablet by about $200 but the discount is said to be only temporary. The deal is available now for all versions of the PlayBook, including the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models and is offered by by Office Depot and Staples until October 1. As of right now, the discount for the BlackBerry PlayBook for both Office Depot and Staples involves an immediate $100 discount and than an addition $100 gift card with your purchase from Office Depot or a $100 mail-in-rebate from Staples. Altogether, the discounts amount up to consist of $200 off. The PlayBook launched back in April and faced immediate criticism for its poor firmware. In an attempt to rush the tablet out to the market, RIM had not completed native apps for basic functions such as email, calendar, and contacts, which further hinder options among its already diminishing user base. As of right now, RIM has only shipped 200,000 units of the tablet, which is embarrassingly lower than even the company’s own conservative estimates. There have been several promotions on the tablet in recent months but none of them seemed to generate much excitement for the tablet. RIM is hoping that the upcoming PlayBook 2.0 update will bring in the missing features as well as the long promised Android app player in time for the holiday season. Authors: