RIM May Have to Cut PlayBook Price to Shift Units
Sales of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook aren't what they should be. Will the company cut the price in an effort to move some inventory?
Not too long ago, the tech world was foaming at the mouth over HP's TouchPad fire sale. The previously unpopular slate suddenly shot to the top of everyone's must-have list and, for a little while, it was the most sought after tablet out there. HP sold out of TouchPads in less than a day. Now there's talk that RIM might have to pull a similar stunt because sales of the PlayBook aren't looking so hot.
RIM said in its earnings call yesterday that it only shipped 200,000 PlayBooks in the quarter just ended. If that number sounds incredibly small to you, that's because it kind of is. Worse yet, shipped units don't always translate to units sold. Just because RIM has put 200,000 on retailers' shelves, that doesn't mean they've all been sold. The Wall Street Journal reckons RIM might have to drop the price to shift stock. The newspaper cites Co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis as saying RIM does plan promotions this fall including special incentives for companies and rebates for consumers, though he didn't specify what products would be included. It's definitely not confirmation that the PlayBook will see some discount action, but it's a distinct possibility.
RIM yesterday announced quarterly earnings with revenue of $4.2 billion, down 15 percent from $4.9 billion in the previous quarter and down 10 percent from $4.6 billion in the same quarter last year. GAAP net income for the quarter was $329 million, or $0.63 per share diluted, compared with net income of $695 million, or $1.33 per share diluted, in the prior quarter. Net income for the same quarter last year was $797 million, or $1.46 per share diluted.
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Make them $250-350 and they will go off the shelves much faster than now!
Fire sale!
Fire sale!
Fire sale!
i'd go for a 16GB one for $250.00. this will not happen yet but it will if the improvements (updates) they announced for it fail
Even if they lower the price below $350 it's possible they will still be sitting on store shelves collecting more dust. Also with the HP touch pad is still surfacing and people waiting to get one not only at the $99 price but over $300 or more people are buying them. I think rim waited to long to make the necessary addition, etc to their tablet and the price they were asking for is crazy.
Another thing is there are so many new tablets coming out that have a lot more to offer at a cheaper price. They need a FIRE SALE @ $89.99 go for it.
I'd buy it @ $99.
They should redesign their products that gear towards everyone and not just corporate anymore.
If they go for $199, I'll seriously contemplate buying.
MAY have to cut prices? You mean they HAVE to cut prices. They should have cut the price over a month ago at the very latest. RIM's plummeting share price is totally deserved, because the company is being run like sh*t.
to put this into perspeective, apple sells 50 ipads everytime rim sells one playbook
RIM should keep seling phones, but not tablets. They should withdraw the Playbook and stick them in a landfill. Reducing the price significantly would cheapen the Blackberry brand.
to put this into perspeective, apple sells 50 ipads everytime rim sells one playbook
Well, of course. A lot of people see value in the iPad. The Playbook? ...not so much.
Title is obvious but at least RIM are making the right moves. I feel all tablet makers (minus ASUS and apple) NEED to cut the price of tablets. Why would I buy a device that costs more than a budget laptop and then have to buy a overpriced data bundle on top of that? That approach is not gonna make me drop my laptop or even my netbook (I can at least write and compile code on a netbook which is the big advantage and yes some online compilers work ok). I even can afford a mifi device and keep it toped up cheaper than the 2years a tablet will last before the OS update leaves if feeling slow and incomplete.
So far tablets with keyboards are the only ones that interest me but they really need a price drop since accessories cost as much as the tablet half the time. Carriers arnt helping either, they only offer tablets with a very low end smartphone and give an expensive but worthless contract with it. I liked the bridge idea for blackberry as it got round tethering "issue" and the atrix solution (which I convinced will unfortunately be a one off rather than a genuine attempt to direct the market), but nowhere stocks the playbook without a ridiculous mark up or contract I don't need.
Even if the perfect tablet exsisted A netbook plus mifi is cheaper and more versatile IMO. Town has enough wifi points to get by without mifi half the time tho the uni where I spend most of my time doesn't support most devices (uses security software that they only let apple tablets and pc on atm). My phone can handle all the youtube and browsing on the go and my netbook does for storage and content creation. Why would I buy a tablet that costs more but ultimately is hamstrung by overall cost in the end? A playbook is the only tablet I would consider since it can compliment a smartphone rather than sit on top of and make mostly redundant. If decent playbook pricing comes out I will reconsider RIM if
A) the price is right across the board (tablet and phone)
B) current devices get QNX support
C) Giff gaff pull something out of the hat regarding BIS or my current network make a good bundle offer (750mb data cap really sucks so a lot of ground to be made there).
D) some sort of keyboard dock is released and a txt editor or something that allows me to write code other than word (even compile it online or at home is ok)
Playbook is a nice toy but hard to look at because it has a very small screen and hard to sync with a Windows computer and hard to run MS Office and Adobe Photoshop on and hard to print to my printers with and hard to play my 3-D games on and too slow to solve my equations for the Universal Theory on.
If they reduce the price for it to $1 so it is sold in the Dollar Stores, I might buy one, but I'm hoping they come out with a 2nd edition one with retinal display, quad core eight virtual cores cpu with 8 GB ram, 256 gb SSD, micro HDMI and USB 3 outputs, 20 MegaPixel forward and backward video cameras with autofocus, stereo speakers for $1 each, or 2 for $1 would make it an attractive gift purchase for Christmas.
RIM has the same problem as everyone else mostly (HP, Motorola, Samsung) - releasing a competing product with very LITTLE value that is equal or surpass the market leader AT the same price or more.
The big-guys said that Apple's tablet market share would shrink to about 30% in 2012 with Android taking over. *I* STILL DON SEE THAT!!* Many people are rooting the B&N Nook into a $250 7" Android tablet. Yet its still a rather functional tablet out of the box, has books, magazines, a browser and games (drum roll... Angry Birds). The only thing it doesn't have/do is store user content (music/videos/photos) and take pictures/video.
Cheapest Tablet on the market at $100 at any store.... LeapPad Explorer, which does include a camera. Made for kids.