Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | June 22, 2011, 10:05am PDT

RIM, best known for the BlackBerry handsets, has slashed internal sales targets for its PlayBook tablet by more than half, according to DigiTimes.

RIM had initially come up with an internal sales target of some 2.4 million for the tablet prior to its launch in mid-April, but according to Taiwanese supply chain sources this has now been downgraded to 800,000-900,000 units.

RIM has seen strong launch-day demand for the PlayBook, selling some 40,000 to 50,000 units, but following this initial boost sales seem to have slowed down significantly. However, despite lukewarm sales, the PlayBook remains one of the biggest tablet players outside of Apple’s iPad. Other players such as the Motorola’s Xoom, Acer’s Iconia, or Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer see some 100,000 to 200,000 units per month.

RIM still has one ace up its sleeve for the PlayBook - models featuring 3G, LTE and WiMAX support are coming in the third quarter and these could help to boost sales.

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Research In Motion Ltd., Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

HappyXWindowsUser Updated - 23rd Jun

@woulddie4apple

In terms of iOS apps, I agree with you. In terms of continued Apple hardware innovation, I don't. I want someone to come up with a decent competitor to keep pushing Apple forward. I'm hoping that HP will be able to produce something that competes with the iPad, but I'm not holding my breath. I thought RIM had a pretty good shot too, and look how that turned out. As for Android, what a joke. It's so kludgy compared to iOS, on phones and tablets. Buggy. Laggy. Inconsistent app GUIs. Higher incidents of crashing. Lame.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Hasam1991 22nd Jun

Oh white iPad... I charge you once a week and use you 2 hours per day! Apple got it right!!

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I love my iPad

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@Hasam1991
I would die for Apple.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Hasam1991 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple
I would kill for good products lol...

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

vmhatre 22nd Jun

@Hasam1991
Why don't you kill woulddie4apple? You get the iPad, woulddie4apple dies for apple happy

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

vmhatre 22nd Jun

@Hasam1991
Why don't you kill woulddie4apple? You get the iPad, woulddie4apple dies for apple happy

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

vmhatre 22nd Jun

@Hasam1991
Why don't you kill woulddie4apple? You get the iPad, woulddie4apple dies for apple happy

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

josh92 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple

I bet you wouldn't after Steve Jobs dies. He's knocking on Death's door, and when he goes, Apple goes. Remember what the period of time when he was gone from Apple was like before? Apple foundered. Apple is only growing and thriving because he is with the company again. If he hadn't rejoined the company all the years ago, Apple would be a footnote in history. Apple is Jobs. When he dies Apple will begin it's inevitable decline.

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EeePad Transformer FTW

The Jay 22nd Jun

I've played with the Playbook and within 1 hour of demo'ing the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 16GB it is hands down a better performing unit in all areas. I don't care that it also doesn't have 3G or wimax. Playbook is priced far too high for its mediocre offering considering the Transformer from a Tier 1 builder is only $399! $550 with the keyboard/battery add-on.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Cylon Centurion 22nd Jun

@The Jay

High prices never stopped anyone from buying an iPad.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Droid101 22nd Jun

@Cylon Centurion
Enterprises.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

kenosha77a 22nd Jun

@Cylon Centurion

I'm sorry, Cylon, but I really have to say your comment also applies to the original HP Slate 500 -- except that it's high price and mediocre performance actually DID stop people outside of enterprise clients from buying this product.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Fletchguy 22nd Jun

@Cylon Centurion
Thats because apple buyers tend to not be very smart and don't demand much for their dollar. If the ipad buyers based their decision on functionibility and usefulness then they would never buy an ipad as they are the most limited of all tablets or slates.Besides they are programed to buy What Steve Jobs tells them too.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Heart_Man_2000 22nd Jun

@Cylon Centurion
It's a prime example of "you get what you pay for".

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Is the EeePad Transformer making any profit?

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@The Jay
No? Then it will die. As it should. Nothing can compete with Apple.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Fletchguy 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple
Lol thats funny considering every device out is better then apples version and costs less while doing more.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

msalzberg 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple

Welcome back, NonZealot. Where have you been?

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

HappyXWindowsUser 23rd Jun

@Fletchguy

I think that you must live in an alternate universe where everything you say is NOT B.S.
Look up "reality" in the dictionary, beause you're obviously not familiar with it.

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Wow

Robert Hahn 22nd Jun

$550 with the keyboard/battery add-onSo for only twenty bucks less than an iPad and its keyboard, you can get a genuine Asus? That is so cool.

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Good point

tkejlboom 22nd Jun

@Robert Hahn

Apple products typically consist of reduced feature low end components from ASUS and SAMSUNG. I'd much rather get the hardware directly from the manufacturer.

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Except for Asus is an assemly line, much like Foxconn, so it is not really

DeRSSS 22nd Jun

@tkejlboom: ... component manufacturer. And Samsung does not do much for iPad except for manufacturing (not designing) SoC A5 and, partially (Toshiba does most of the work), flash memory. Samsung does not provide screens either for iPad 1/2 or iPhone 4 since it does not have license for IPS technology from Hitachi Display.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

HappyXWindowsUser 23rd Jun

@tkejlboom

You're kidding right? You must be living in the same alternate universe as Fletchy-boy. You really should get together for coffee sometime.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

browser. 22nd Jun

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... LOL... ROTFL... Where are all those who were saying Playbook would kill the iPad... welcome to reality. Reality is RIM is going to RIP soon... No one wants their crappy phones

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Linux Geek 22nd Jun

@browser.
RIM's hardship is because of the aggressive anti-competitive behavior by M$ and Job$.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

mrlinux 22nd Jun

@Linux Geek No it is RIM's fault for producing a product that comes no where near ready.
One of biggest thing people want an iPad for is to check email and on the playbook you need a Blackberry phone !!!! same thing with the calendar.

The iPad2 with IOS 5 is a stand alone replacement computer for users who do not want the headaches of the care and feeding a Normal PC. Unfortunately the Playbook does not do that.

RIM had a demo truck stop by work and we checked it out, I thought it was good product except the no calendar/contacts/email and the price make it a non starter for me.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

mrlinux 22nd Jun

@Linux Geek Except based on the numbers Android is getting more of RIM's business than WIN PHONE and iPhone.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Hasam1991 22nd Jun

@Linux Geek
ANDROID... but then again look at PALM.. it died

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

Fan_of_Tech 22nd Jun

@mrlinux

Is the email that much of a sales point? I sync some of my email with my phone, but for the most part I access my web-mail online.

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Count Android in there too

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@browser.
Android will die soon too. How much longer are companies like HTC and Motorola willing to lose money on their handsets and iPad clones before they quit? Google is the only one making money from Android, when will the hardware manufacturers realize this?

So Android is RIP.

And so is WebOS. What a farce that is!

WstupidP7 is fugly and should die much quicker than it will but only because M$ is ILLEGALLY subsidizing it with Office and Windows revenue.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

x I'm tc 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple
Illegally?

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Wow how... foreseeable. Expect more target cuts and bad news from RIM...

Johnny Vegas 22nd Jun

No one in their right mind would purchase one of these. And while we're at it take note HP, you can cut your estimates in half right now too. No consumer wants a webos tablet and unfortunately no enterprise wants one either, no matter how close to free you make it hoping to recoup on services and maintenance contracts. I don't want to have to come back here for another I told you so...

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I think all competitors should quit

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

They will never beat Apple. Ever. Apple has successfully erected so many barriers to entry in the tablet market to the point where the smart analysts aren't even calling it a tablet market, they are calling it an iPad market. No competitor has ever made a penny of profit in the iPad market so they should all quit. This will be good for us iPad owners since it means that all developers will be forced to focus their energies on iOS apps.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

lplympton Updated - 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple
I am surprised at how stupid ANY fanbois are, but especially Apple fanbois. Competition leads to better and cheaper products. Without competition, things stagnate or the price skyrockets. If all of the other table / phone producers just went away, there would be no reason for Apple to innovate. Stop typing for a second and think about it. Now, repeat after me, competition is good, competition is good...ect ad nauseum.

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No, competition is bad for Apple consumers

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@lplympton
It takes developers away from iOS. That is bad for me.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

reklissrick 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple
Sp that Apple can steal from these developers and bake their solutions post-mortem into ios?

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'woulddie4apple', most probably, just trolling, so 'stupid' is someone else

DeRSSS 22nd Jun

@lplympton: wink

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DeRSSS: Care to dispute a single thing I wrote?

woulddie4apple Updated - 22nd Jun

Go ahead, dispute a single thing I've written. I love Apple, would die for Apple, and have listed factual reasons for why I feel that way. After having read your posts, it is obvious that you feel exactly the same way I do.

Go ahead DeRSSS, convince me to buy any smartphone but the iPhone, any MP3 player but the iPod, or any tablet but the iPad. Why would I buy anything other than the Apple product in these categories? If you can't, then you must admit that you are trolling. happy

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

j-mccurdy@... 22nd Jun

@lplympton It's no use, there is a defect with him. He seriously is not right. You might as well be trying to negotiate with the Taliban not to kill infidels.

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You are probably trolling, so do not waste your time on me -- focus on ...

DeRSSS 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple: ... people who "buy" your behaviour. (And I do not own anything from Apple, by the way, so trolling on this matter does not work either.)

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

j-mccurdy@... 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple You know there's something wrong with you don't you? Seriously dude, you need to seek help.

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

HappyXWindowsUser Updated - 23rd Jun

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market data

bezoeker 22nd Jun

I was thinking of following the market share data, but I see it is all already in this treat. For now, for the future.

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@woulddieforapple

lplympton 22nd Jun

I am surprised at how stupid ANY fanbois are, but especially Apple fanbois. Competition leads to better and cheaper products. Without competition, things stagnate or the price skyrockets. If all of the other table / phone producers just went away, there would be no reason for Apple to innovate. Stop typing for a second and think about it. (I say stop typing as from your previous posts you are more than likely too stupid to do more than one thing at a time.) Now, repeat after me, competition is good, competition is good...ect ad nauseum.

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Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it

Robert Hahn 22nd Jun

No thread on this subject would be complete without someone who thinks that these devices could be sold for $250 or less if only the manufacturers weren't so stupid.

So I'll do it: what the other tablet makers need to do is sell their products for a lot less! OK, so they'll lose money on every one. They can make it up on volume! Supply and demand! Down with corporate greed! Apple will be crushed!

People who are buying parts in one-tenth the quantity that Apple is should be able to undercut Apple's price easily!

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No one can compete with Apple

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@Robert Hahn
I totally agree with you. You either have to charge more than Apple (for an inferior product) so you won't sell any. Or you can charge less than Apple (for a REALLY inferior product) and lose money on each one.

Either way, Apple wins!! I really wish companies like HTC, Motorola, Nokia, and HP would just stop everything that they are doing and make peripherals for Apple. That is the only chance anyone has to make any money in the post-PC Apple dominated tech world!

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UI Comparison

dfilteau 22nd Jun

Having tried the Xoom, Galaxy Tab, iPad and PalyBook, I have to give the nod to the PlayBook as the best UI experience, especially with respect to their gestures. WebOS has similar gestures so I expect that device to feel as natural as the PlayBook is to work with.

I invite all of you to go out there, objectively try them all out and base your decision on fact and not on the love of a favorite brand.

There's no doubt that competition improves the breed. I remember when MS was the 500lb. gorilla of desktop (almost solely) and it was always refreshing to see the competition's take on GUI's and IDE's.

I sincerely hope that RIM and QNX live on to contribute to the betterment of the computing business and in turn, our lives.

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I don't need to try them to know they suck

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

@dfilteau
Apple has sold so many iPads that the market has spoken. Apple wouldn't have sold so many if iPads weren't the best of the best. They have even stopped calling it a tablet market and now it is simply referred to as the iPad market.

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First to Market

dfilteau 22nd Jun

@woulddie4apple, don't underestimate the importance of being first to market. By stretching that lead, Apple will remain the tablet leader, without doubt. That doesn't mean it's the best UI, as my post was alluding to.

I know (by your tag) that there's no hope of having you consider anything but Apple but all I ask is that you consider the benefits of the different solutions that other designers have brought to the market. Apple doesn't have a monopoly on good design.

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Apple does have a monopoly on good design

woulddie4apple 22nd Jun

That's why they are the richest tech company in the world!

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RE: RIM already slashing PlayBook sales by more than half

NO_CARRIER 22nd Jun

A very strong second is not anything to down-talk. 500,000 Playbook shipments in 6 weeks only in North America. iPad2 sold much more, 2 million---they did this though, with two extra weeks (8 weeks), and launched worldwide. No, the Playbook isn't an iPad killer, and it shouldn't be, it's an enterprise device foremost, consumer device second. There will always be more than one big player in the tech industry, and second is very respectable this early in the game. Just like the Apple MacBook's consistently sell much less than Dell/HP laptops doesn't mean Apple is a failure at laptops... they still make a killer device. It's just not the #1 selling device.