RIM

PlayBook is an ‘albatross’

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Businessweek:

Lazaridis said at the time the PlayBook was worth continuing because the tablet market is still “in its infancy and that “based on the positive response to the promotions that are underway in select markets, RIM believes this strategy will accelerate adoption” of its new operating system and help built the application ecosystem for devices planned for 2012.

RIM failed to plan for the future while it controlled the smartphone market years ago. Then it lied to its users and the market and said the PlayBook was planned all along — it didn’t take a genius to see that the PlayBook was thrown together at the last minute to mitigate a threat from the iPad.

Note to RIM re: Playbooks

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Hey, RIM – if you’re wondering what to do with all those unsold Playbooks, maybe it’s time consider how Atari handled its glut of E.T. cartridges.

RIM misses Q3 guidance on slow PlayBook sales

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From RIM’s advisory this morning:

As previously disclosed, RIM has a high level of BlackBerry PlayBook inventory. The Company now believes that an increase in promotional activity is required to drive sell-through to end customers. This is due to several factors, including recent shifts in the competitive dynamics of the tablet market and a delay in the release of the PlayBook OS 2.0 software. As a result, RIM will record a provision that reflects the current market environment and allows it to expand upon the aggressive level of promotional activity recently employed by the Company in order to drive PlayBook adoption around the world.

Drunk RIM employees disrupt flight

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The Star: George Campbell, 45, of Conestogo, Ont., and Paul Alexander Wilson, 38, of Kitchener, pleaded guilty to one charge of mischief in Richmond Provincial Court on Wednesday. They were each given suspended sentences and one year’s probation, and ordered … Continued

RIM to offer security software for iPhone, Android

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Alastair Sharp for Reuters: The company said on Tuesday that it will launch its new Mobile Fusion device management software in the first quarter, allowing corporate IT staff to set and monitor rules for passwords, apps and software on a … Continued

∞ Corporate necrophilia

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Ina Fried: RIM, for its part, says it has licensed Adobe’s source code and plans to continue supporting Flash on the PlayBook. As Matt Alexander said to me today: “Dying companies working with dead products? It’s like corporate necrophilia.”

∞ RIM is a 'wounded puppy'

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Hugo Miller and Matt Walcoff:

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)’s decline below book value for the first time in nine years leaves the BlackBerry maker worth less than the net value of its property, patents and other assets in a sign of investors’ lowered faith.“This is a wounded puppy,” Timothy Ghriskey, who oversees $2 billion as chief investment officer of Solaris Group LLC in Bedford Hills, New York.

Investors had the chance to kick the co-CEOs to the curb at the last annual meeting and they didn’t. Instead they asked the pair softball questions and accepted their lame explanations. The downfall of the stock is much the fault of the investors as it is the CEOs at this point.

∞ RIM shares fall to seven year low

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Reuters:

Research In Motion shares fell to a seven-year low in Toronto on Wednesday as the market digested further evidence of the smartphone maker’s declining share of the lucrative U.S. market.

How much more evidence do you need?

∞ 15 other offers RIM could use to sell PlayBooks

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Message from Jim: Earlier today RIM began offering a “buy 2, get 1 free” PlayBook deal. I thought it would be appropriate to help the company come up with some other special offers. I contacted Darby Lines, aka The Angry Drunk, to work some of his magic.

Take it away Darby:

  1. The Sampler package: Buy 4 PlayBooks and get a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a Motorola Xoom, an HP TouchPad and a Dell Streak. Enjoy the full range of crappy tablets.

∞ RIM sued over BlackBerry outages

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BGR.com: It specifically focuses on “RIM’s failure to take action to either directly compensate BlackBerry users or to indirectly compensate BlackBerry users by arranging for wireless service providers to refunds their customers and to take full responsibility for these damages.” … Continued

∞ PlayBook OS 2.0 delayed until 2012

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In an apparent effort to make sure I had something to write about today, RIM announced that it has delayed the release of its PlayBook OS 2.0 software until February 2012. CrackBerry.com reported the news last night. The full text … Continued

∞ RIM has no idea

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Macworld: At a service update conference held on Thursday afternoon, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said, “We don’t know why the switch failed and why service never failed over to another alternative switch.” Asked why the company couldn’t avoid network traffic … Continued

∞ BlackBerry services out again

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BBC: A few hours after Blackberry maker RIM said all services were “operating normally” users have complained of a new crash. Twitter is full of angry users reporting renewed issues with their handsets and an inability to send messages and … Continued

∞ RIM 'absolutely confident' in the PlayBook

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Adam Schreck for the Associated Press: Patrick Spence, RIM’s managing director for global sales and regional marketing, told The Associated Press in Dubai that the Waterloo, Ontario-based company was not as clear as it could have been in defining the … Continued

∞ iOS leads by wide margin in mobile Web use

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Fortune: When measured against other smartphone/tablet operating systems, Apple’s (AAPL) iOS accounts for more than half of the visits to its clients’ 40,000 websites around the world. In fact,the 54.65% share that Net Applications recorded for iOS devices in September … Continued

∞ Head of developer relations latest to bail on RIM

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Reuters reports that Tyler Lessard, RIM’s senior vice-president for global alliances and developer relations, left the company. He’s just the latest in a long line of people that are abandoning RIM. Mike Kirkup, a director of developer relations, resigned in … Continued

∞ RIM reportedly shutdown production of PlayBook

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BGR.com: Research In Motion has reportedly stopped production of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and is considering exiting the space altogether. Collins Stewart analyst John Vinh made the claims in a note to investors Thursday morning, citing anonymous sources at RIM’s … Continued

∞ Amazon Fire does email, already beats RIM

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Stay in touch using our built-in email app that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc.) into a single inbox. Import your messages and contact lists from other email accounts. Additional email apps are available in our Amazon Appstore … Continued

∞ RIM cuts PlayBook production

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AppleInsider: Industry sources told DigiTimes that the manufacturer is cutting back production lines for the PlayBook at a factory in Taiwan, offering preferential compensation to the roughly 1,000 workers who have been let go. Quanta confirmed the layoffs, but declined … Continued