Gadget Reviews, Product News, Electronic Gadgets

This year was rough for many tablet manufacturers, as one tablet after another fell prostrate at the virtual feet of the reigning tablet king – Apple’s iPad. The iPad and the iPad 2 devoured the market share, leaving little profit for competitors like HP, Motorola, Samsung, and RIM.
HP’s TouchPad bowed out early in the year, and the company hosted a fire sale to get rid of remaining stock. Unsurprisingly, the HP TouchPad’s $99 was popular with consumers, and the struggling BlackBerry PlayBook attempted to follow in its footsteps with major price cuts.RIM reduced the price of its baseline unit to $249, and later implemented even deeper cuts, matching the price of the newly successful Kindle Fire – $199. Despite only shipping 700,000 devices and selling even fewer, RIM remained committed to its PlayBook, determined to see the device succeed.
Things originally looked so promising. With a 1GHZ dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a compact form factor, and the BlackBerry name, the PlayBook was originally thought to be a serious iPad competitor. Unfortunately the tablet was crippled by design flaws, an underdeveloped app store, and the omission of vital productivity software like email and calendar.
The PlayBook’s lack of success, and RIM’s struggles with outages earlier this year have had a deep impact on the company. At its earnings announcement yesterday, RIM revealed that its stock has dropped almost 75 percent over the course of 2011, and its earnings are down 70 percent for the quarter. The company cited the massive discounts that it was forced to apply to the PlayBook as the reason for its failure.
RIM’s net income this quarter was a mere $265 million, a huge drop compared to the $911 million it pulled in last year. RIM reported having a total of $1,307 million in cash and investments, down from $2,121 million last year. Research In Motion now has just 9 percent of the smartphone market share, down from 24 percent as of last year.
Unfortunately, RIM has also delayed the launch of its new QNX-based smartphones, which were due in the first quarter of 2012, leading to further strain on its finances. The QNX phones, which the company hopes will turn the tides back in its favor, are delayed until late 2012. Fourth quarter 2011 numbers aren’t looking any better than its third quarter numbers, either.
On the plus side, RIM has a strong subscriber base and consistent subscriber growth, plus increased smartphone sales from the launch of the new BlackBerry 7 phones. If RIM can hang on until the end of 2012, the new phones could potentially turn things around for the flagging company. RIM is currently still profitable, but the PlayBook is killing it, bit by bit, eating up profits that RIM should be using to produce better phones.
Comments from CEO Mike Lazaridis indicate that the company is not giving up on the PlayBook. “We are committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook, and it’s an important aspect of our longer term smartphone and mobile computing strategy. While we would have preferred the initial launch to have been smoother, I firmly believe that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet remains the most secure and most advanced tablet platform on the market today.”
Even a new line of smartphones may not save the company if its desperate to hold onto a dying, life-sucking product. RIM is planning a 2.0 update, but is it enough to save the PlayBook and the company? We’ll find out in the second half of 2012, when the new OS goes live.
via : Padgadget