Analyst: RIM’s ‘PlayBook’ tablet expectations may be too optimistic

15 years ago

“Research In Motion Ltd., the mobile- phone maker whose shares have surged since it unveiled a tablet computer to compete with the iPad, may sell fewer of the devices than investors project, said Susquehanna Financial Group,” Hugo Miller reports for Bloomberg.

MacDailyNews Take: Nobody with a brain is excited about a RIM tablet. The product is well outside their core competency (outmoded cellphones featuring beards-of-buttons) and they have no ecosystem of which to speak.

Miller continues, “Investors appear to be assuming RIM will sell about 10 million BlackBerry PlayBooks in the next fiscal year, Jeffrey Fidacaro, an analyst with Susquehanna in New York, wrote in a note today. That may be difficult given the growing number of tablets, from Apple Inc.’s iPad to Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Tab, and RIM’s narrow focus.”

MacDailyNews Take: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is a joke. That it’s the rote product the media uses in their futile quest to create “equality” with the vastly superior Apple iPad speaks volumes.

Miller continues, “RIM plans to report fiscal third-quarter results on Dec. 16 and said in September it expects revenue to be $5.3 billion to $5.55 billion and profit per share will range from $1.62 to $1.70. Analysts are expecting results at the low end of those ranges, with an average estimate of $5.38 billion in sales and per-share profit of $1.63 billion [sic], a Bloomberg survey shows.”