“The minute Apple Inc.’s iPhone appeared and rocketed to glory, everyone was wondering what RIM would do… So far, the company has been in the tank with a couple of real dogs,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “The first howler was RIM’s Storm, which I personally tried and found to be impossible to use and also annoying. Now we see the PlayBook, which will turn out to be a disaster.”
Dvorak writes, “For a company that got its reputation and hung its future on email, exactly why can’t the RIM PlayBook retrieve any? If you hook a phone to it, you can get your messages, yes. But that’s just ridiculous. Why can’t the thing retrieve email like every other tablet in the world just by itself?
“I’ve been under the impression that RIM was a company that could get through any downturn. But I never thought much about it muddling through a paradigm shift caused by a disruptive device — the app phone,” Dvorak writes. “It’s almost impossible to make a comeback from two glaring mistakes such as the Storm and the PlayBook. You’d have to hit a home run the next time at bat, even though RIM has not made any contact with the ball at all. Read more about RIM shares tumbling below $50 after company’s profit warning and analyst downgrades.”
Dvorak writes, “Here is my fear: The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has lost touch with reality and its customer base. Seriously.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, maybe we were wrong about RIM?
Just kidding. Dvorak’s fear is, for once, well-founded.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dominick P.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Dvorak: I really cannot see much of a need for Apple iPad – October 22, 2010
Dvorak: iPad is not going to be Apple’s next runaway best seller – February 12, 2010
Dvorak trolls: ‘Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone’ – March 28, 2007
Dvorak on Apple iPhone: ‘I think Apple can do wrong and I think this is it’ – January 13, 2007
I love the “journalist” that were reporting how cool the playbook was. From a mockup, to CES showing and up to final pre release. They were hyping this pile of poorly linked parts and unfilled dreams to the max! The industry has gotten to this ship anything and fix it later concept. The public is not buying it any more!
Any normal person could see it was dead before it even arrived…
I don’t care how much I may agree with him in this case, I will never give a web hit to that Apple fan-baiting moron.
——RM
I was always of the impression that RIM’s customer base had already lost its touch with reality from the get-go.
Wow. I’m moving to Canada and was hoping to apply for a job there.
Well, I guess no RIMjob for me.
I keep saying it, but at least RIM uses the integrated hardware/software model.
We sell the Playbook where I work and so far we have sold a grand total of 3 (maybe 4). The first 3 sales were on launch day.
Ahh, ahh ! “the Waterloo, Ontario-based company”
Waterloo (Belgium) was the place where Napoleon was, at last, defeat. Same for RIM?
qka, got it right. Meds work once in a while.