PlayBook and Other iPad Competitors Continue to Perform Poorly
We’ve known that RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook wasn’t doing so well, based on poor sales and a failure to integrate key features, such as non-subscriber email into the tablet, but newly released second quarter info reveals that the company’s shipping estimates were way off.
RIM recently released their second quarter financial results, and it’s definitely not looking good. During the quarter, RIM shipped a mere 200,000 PlayBooks (compared to Apple’s millions), which was far from their previous 600,000 to 700,000 estimate.
RIM’s overall revenue is down 10 percent compared to the same quarter last year, dropping from $4.6 billion to $4.2 billion.
RIM isn’t the only company suffering from tablet troubles. HP recently dropped out of the market, completely discontinuing their TouchPads and selling remaining stock at an ultra low price. Tablet manufacturer Sharp announced today that it too would be cutting back on tablet production, and discontinued much of the Galapagos tablet lineup.
These failures demonstrate how difficult it is to compete with the overwhelming success of Apple’s iPad. If the numbers are any indication, the PlayBook may very well be the next tablet to be discontinued.