A new PlayBook: Struggling RIM replaces its dual CEOs with one dude

In the U.S. we were very, very successful coming from the core enterprise business, and in the public opinion this is still where we’re skewed to. We need to be more marketing-driven. We need to be more consumer-oriented because this is where a lot of our growth is coming from. That is essential in the U.S.
Research in Motion’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins • Discussing the difficult issues the company faces as it tries to compete with Apple and Google in a field that they popularized with the BlackBerry: Smartphones. Heins, the former Chief Operating Officer, replaced the company’s two co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, who stepped down over the weekend. It has not exactly been the best year for RIM — to call the company’s tablet, the PlayBook, a flop would be putting it lightly, as its failure cost the company nearly half a billion dollars last year. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of their problems. source

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150,000 tablets number of BlackBerry PlayBooks RIM sold in the third quarter; to compare, RIM sold 14.1 million smartphones
$450 million size of the financial hit RIM took in the third quarter, partly as a result of lackluster PlayBook sales source

» Why is the PlayBook flopping? If you asked RIM, you’d get an answer that sounds pretty jargon-y: “Recent shifts in the competitive dynamics of the tablet market and a delay in the release of the PlayBook OS 2.0 software.” Here’s the English version of that answer: “The iPad, the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire.” But that’s just us talking. Meanwhile, RIM has been trimming the price of the PlayBook from an absurd $500 to as low as $199 — in part to clear inventory for the next version of the device, though we’re guessing the fact that other seven-inch tablets are selling for roughly that price doesn’t help.

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Hey RIM, didya forget about how stupid AT&T is? The BlackBerry Playbook’s utterly bizarre requirement that forces you to tether your phone to your tablet to check your e-mail is bad enough, but there’s an even worse problem for the company, and it’s one that most iPhone customers know all too well about. See, AT&T isn’t all that hot about the concept of tethering devices unless they can make money off of it. So … guess what AT&T isn’t allowing on the BlackBerry Playbook right now? That’s right. Tethering. So, if you’re an AT&T customer, you can’t check your e-mail on your shiny new tablet. And they may charge $45 a month for the privilege. In other news, launch day sales for the Playbook were a relatively robust 45,000. source

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23 Jan 2012 10:31