Beleaguered “Research In Motion today said that it plans to let its low-end PlayBook tablet die off. Though the company will continue to sell PlayBooks, the 16GB version won’t be available once current inventories run out,” Eric Zeman reports for Informationweek. “‘RIM will no longer be making the 16GB model of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet,’ the company said in a statement. ‘The 16GB PlayBook will continue to be available for distributors and retailers while quantities last. We continue to remain committed to the tablet space and the 32GB and 64GB models of the BlackBerry PlayBook continue to be available from our distributors and retailers around the world. There is more value for our customers in the higher capacity models (32GB, 64GB), and as such we have decided to focus our efforts here.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Amateur hour. You do not issue statements about discontinuing models, you just discontinue them. These idiots are unnecessarily — but truthfully, at least — giving the impression that PlayBook is a dead end product.
Zeman reports, “RIM’s efforts in the tablet space have been anything but successful. Total sales of the PlayBook aren’t known with certainty, but they are well below those of Apple’s iPad, which has sold in the tens of millions. Estimates of PlayBook sales are less than two million in the 14 months that the tablet has been available.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s see, 1/3 of the PlayBook line is now dead, so Amateur Hour only has about 40 minutes left.
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More blood on Apple iPad’s touchscreen: Dell kills Streak 7, backs out of Android tablets in US – December 5, 2011
More blood on Apple iPad’s touchscreen: Sharp pulls plug on main ‘Galapagos’ tablets – September 15, 2011
More blood on Apple iPad’s touchscreen: Dell’s Streak 5 tablet is dead – August 12, 2011
More blood on Apple iPad’s touchscreen: Plastic Logic abandons e-reader – August 11, 2010
Apple’s iPad has blood on its touchscreen: eReader-maker iRex files for bankruptcy – June 11, 2010
Poof! RIM’s vaporous Android-powered tablet evaporates – May 05, 2010
Poof! Microsoft’s vaporous ‘Courier’ slate PC evaporates – April 29, 2010
Poof! HP’s vaporous slate PC evaporates – April 28, 2010
Apple launches iPad; revolutionary device starts at $499 – January 27, 2010
RIM is a textbook cases in business school for what happens when you downplay a seismic shift in your core business.
Well… I’d go further to add it’s a textbook case for all businesses as to what happens when you completely miss a seismic shift in your core business.
And…
…the fallacy of joint-CEOs
…when the views of key managers are ignored even when they go public
…an in-effective chairman of the board who acted too late
…same chairman who, while supposed to protect shareholder value, oversaw its destruction
…how ultimately, hubris is an ineffective strategy to a serious contender
RIM has been a complete disaster all round.
While supplies last? 2-3 more years then?
Not that I own any thing RIM nor used the product. But they played the game as good as any have.
Rim at least developed its own OS. Not stolen like Android.
Samsung is a huge manufacture and can crank out a fleet of models that not even Apple can keep up with. Microsoft will not be the third competitor. Apple needs to kill Android to force Samsung to buy Rims OS.
For an Amateur, as MDN remarks, the PlayBook is rather better built then Acer’s Tablet and designed quite nicely too. Tablets will look like tablets. The details are distinctively RIM.
They did far better with PlayBook then HP did with WebOS and it’s tablet. RIM took on Apple at a bad time. And spread themselves in a panic too thinly over several products. They should have protected Nortel (buying all) patents and focused on one main handset.
MDN used the term “amateur” sarcastically. RIM foolishly placed a ad in either the NYT or WSJ proudly claiming “amateur hour is over” now that the Playbook is being released.
Napoleon at Waterloo = RIM at Waterloo
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Just—don’t disgust us with weasel words about how you’re “committed to the tablet space”. Napoleon handed over his sword. Don’t pretend you’re “focusing on preserving value” for your customers; there are none, only stretcher-bearers, looters of the dead, and circling vultures.
I thought Napoleon fled to Paris after Waterloo.
Details.
Actually, Paris is only 45 km South of Waterloo – they won’t have far to go…
You mean the ABBA song?
For a lark I clicked on MDN’s last link up there, ”apple launches iPad.”(http://macdailynews.com/2010/01/27/apple_launches_ipad_revolutionary_device_starts_at_499/)
Amazing to see what the verdict was around here when it launched. Lots of “just a big iPod touch,” “sounds like a feminine hygiene product,” and “no sale.”
How times change.
And many people forget Newton was more an
extension of Apple Branding as it’s products were named,
the “MessagePad”,
and had a clam shell version called, “eMate”.
“iPad” was a logical name MDN.
“i” the consumer from Apple inc.
“Pad” kinder name for tablet and slate sounds too dated BC.
I can’t remember what I said at the time. Probably too expensive for what it can do.
But then the reaction from the public has been amazing. My sister in law is a die hard ape hater. She bought the ipad2 for herself and another for her mother. Six months later she got the iPhone. My wife got the iPad2 for Xmas. Since then she has stopped watching tv and is reading books instead. The camera addition was a big part in both sales and that was something that people complained about initially.
your sister hates apes? Yeah, mine too.
Yea apes can be very Scary.
One Bad Ape can ruin a whole day!
🙂
1/3 of RIMs tablet sector is dead.
The 16 Gb model also had no cellular sim.
IF they can, RIM should make only ONE model.
A 32 Gb internal, wifi & cellular abled tablet with 2 – SD slots
so the storage is expandable up to an additional 128 Gb (in addition to the 32) and quad core processor.
‘Great news we are discontinuing products to give you better value’. Wow fools me.
Clearly, RIM has jumped the shark.
Well, of course it’s not selling.
It doesn’t even have a keyboard!
4o minutes left for the Arrongant RIM folks!
Boy I bet they regret what they said now!
Death is everywhere
there is blood on the touchscreen, for a start
reminding us
how much the others suck, tonight
I actually thought they gave up already… The playbook is STILL around?