“Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of Blackberry smartphones, said Friday its chief marketing officer Keith Pardy has decided to leave the company for personal reasons,” Phred Dvorak reports for The Wall Street Journal.
MacDailyNews Take: iPad 2, killer.
Dvorak reports, “RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, said Mr. Pardy will continue to help the company over a six-month transition period. The departure comes weeks ahead the expected roll-out of RIM’s PlayBook tablet, one of the most significant product launches in the company’s history.”
MacDailyNews Take: PlayBook? PlayDead is more like it. Except RIM won’t be faking that.
Read more in the full article here.
In a companion WSJ article, Dave Kansas reports, “PlayBook will arrive after iPad 2’s launch, which came with much ballyhoo – including a surprise appearance from Steve Jobs – earlier this week. The lower price point for the sleeker iPad 2 is already causing havoc for Motorola Mobility, maker of the already released Xoom. Its shares are down from a high of 36.34 in January to 26.55 today.”
Kansas reports, “Mr. Pardy says he will spend six months in a transition period, but his departure on the eve of the PlayBook launch is rattling investors today.”
MacDailyNews Take: Blood in the water. The fleeing has begun. Shares of RIM are currently down 3%.