RIM Takes $485M Charge Due to Unsold PlayBooks
RIM announced that it will assume a $485 million charge for its fiscal third quarter of this year.
The reason? PlayBook tablets may have shipped in volume, but not sold in volume and are now stockpiling in the company's inventory.
The PlayBook was originally launched for $500, but is currently selling for $200 through major retailers. RIM said that the $485 million reflects its inventory valuation of PlayBooks, which indicates that a substantial number of PlayBooks are collecting dust at this time. RIM said that it sold only 150,000 PlayBooks into the channel, while the sell-through to customers is believed to be higher. Promotions apparently helped fuel demand "significantly", RIM said.
"RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook and believes the tablet market is still in its infancy. Although a number of factors have led to the need for an inventory provision in the third quarter, we believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise," said Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO at RIM, in a prepared statement.
RIM also mentioned that it sold about 14.1 million Blackberry phones in fiscal Q3. The service outage in Q3 hit the company with a $50 million expense. Q3 is expected to be lower than previously expected and come in between $5.3 and $5.6 billion.
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ohh god, did they learn anything from HP?
What?! Is he for real? Another futile attempt to save RIM. I need to invest in recycling plants for useless tablets.
Yeah- surely the company's going out of business since it's only making 5 billion dollars.
I mean... RIM's here to stay.
Even companies like Google have produced flops (remember Buzz/Orkut and the Nexus One experiment (not the phone itself)?). Yet for some strange reason they're still kicking around.
People who say RIM is going under are just stupid. RIM is firmly intrenched in the business and government sector. My company won't allow anything made by Apple or any Android device to connect to it's servers.
I think we should take example from all these tablets failing. Stop copying the iPad, the only reason it is selling so well is that pretty little logo. Just think of anything impractical, and slap an "i" in front and an apple logo on it, it will sell.
What?! Is he for real? Another futile attempt to save RIM. I need to invest in recycling plants for useless tablets.
My dad bought a playbook back when it first went on sale. It's a more powerful device than the iPad by most metrics but as has been noted repeatedly currently lacks applications. Since they dropped the price to 199 it has been sold out pretty much everywhere and to be honest, for that price it's certainly worth it.
Blackberry isnt looking too good
People who say RIM is going under are just stupid. RIM is firmly intrenched in the business and government sector. My company won't allow anything made by Apple or any Android device to connect to it's servers.
Just like the horse and buggy could never be replaced?
You need to take a serious look at the history of consumer good/items and realize that BB is on the same path in it's current state. They're falling so hard right now, it's not even funny.
People who say RIM is going under are just stupid. RIM is firmly intrenched in the business and government sector. My company won't allow anything made by Apple or any Android device to connect to it's servers.
Your company sounds archaic and behind the times.
Fire sale's where it's at, especially with a OS that holds bright potential.
Gotta love the "______ is actually better than the iPad, but because of ______ and _______, nobody is buying it" comments. People aren't as dumb as you seem to think they are. They spend their money on stuff that works today, not on some CEO's wet dream or a half-baked product that might be fixed six months from now. PlayBook, Xoom, joojoo, etc. all failed because they simply couldn't deliver a user experience better than iPad. It's really that simple.
RIMs normal price for the playbooks are too hight (too much of a greedy price), also when they had the $300 off sale, they did a very bad job to stock the stores, as result the stores were always out of stock.
I think the normal price for the 16GB should be around $225-$300, $350-$425 for the 32GB, and the most $450 to $525 for the 64GB. Tablets should only exceed $500 if they come with 3G build in.
I don't know why RIm thinks it can sell the normal prices so high.
Hmmm...tablet $99 Fire Sale, take II...