RIM downgraded as $200 PlayBook vanishes

November 28, 2011 By Geoff Duncan

The $200 PlayBook seems to be vanishing from retailers as RIM faces another downgrade in its stock outlook

Last week, Canada’s Research in Motion cut the price on its low-end PlayBook tablet to just $200 for a limited time in an effort to woo Thanksgiving holiday shoppers to the device just as competitors like the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet and Kindle Fire went on sale. However, just as quickly as the $200 PlayBook appeared, it seems to be vanishing: retailers appear to be in the process of removing the $200 PlayBook devices from their online catalogs, and some Best Buy customers have reported their orders for the $200 tablets have been cancelled.

Complaints in Best Buy customer forums were first reported by Electronista. Quick checks of other retailers that had previously been offering the $200 tablets (Staples, Office Depot, Walmart, and RadioShack) finds the only $200 tablets listed as available are refurbished models.

The move could indicate that RIM’s idea of “a limited time only” was indeed just a period of a few days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday, or that the $200 promotional price proved popular with consumers, even as the Kindle Fire hit the streets. If Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu has lowered his rating on RIM shares from “buy” to “neutral” and suspended his $31 target price for the company’s stock. He notes the company is facing serious competition from the likes of Samsung, Apple, Amazon, and HTC, and that significant service outages in October have damaged RIM with its bread-and-butter enterprise and government customers.

Wu took his critique a step further, saying he should have downgraded RIM’s stock back in October when it was trading for $24 a share. RIM’s stock price closed last week at $16. However, Wu did note that RIM has “intrinsic value,” including a large patent portfolio and 70 million subscribers, and declined to downgrade the stock to “underperform.”

Showing 13 comments

willjansen at 3:36pm 28th November 2011 If there's one thing online media loves to do, it's hate on RIM. Despite continual growth in subscribers in domestic markets (ie: North America) and absolutely robust growth in developing markets (ie: Indonesia, South Africa, etc.), you can barely find a headline positive headline mentioning RIM.Even when they sell out of Playbooks during a Thanksgiving sale, it is viewed as "being delisted from online catalogues"... So selling out of a popular device is now considered a bad thing? This is pure rubbish.
1. Ian Bell at 4:02pm 28th November 2011 "Wu did note that RIM has “intrinsic value,” including a large patent portfolio and 70 million subscribers, and declined to downgrade the stock to “underperform.”"Seems like the writer noted the positive.
  1. willjansen at 5:06pm 28th November 2011 Well yes, if you dig for what amounts to barely more than footnote, there is one positive item mentioned.
    Ian Bell at 5:10pm 28th November 2011 Well, the truth is that the Playbook is a dead product and there is a warehouse full of them. Can't put lipstick on a pig and call her Rosey. :)
    willjansen at 9:44pm 28th November 2011 Dead product... that's sold out across Canada and the States (at a competitive price point). I'm going to disagree with you, but that's beside the point.The fact of the matter is this article is loaded with bias, it's almost as if Mr. Duncan decided what to write about before he even did any research. Yes, one investment firm did downgrade RIM, but the delisting part is pure rubbish and could have been cleared up with a quick google search of the Playbook's brisk sales over the weekend.As a side not, a Scotia Capital analyst said RIM is "absurdly oversold" today... This article could have easily read "Playbook sold out as analysts expect a strong quarter". Equally as biased the other way (well, except the Playbook sold out part, that's actually fact).This is an opinion piece based on hearsay masquerading as news.
    Ian Bell at 9:50pm 28th November 2011 Well my friend, you have a lot of work to do if you want to spread the good word: https://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=playbook+not+selling+wellI wouldn't mind the Playbook if it had a native email client built in and a decent app store dedicated solely to it.Personally, if I was going to buy this, I would go for the Amazon Kindle Fire which is actually the same hardware, just with a different store and an ecosystem to support it.
    willjansen at 10:22pm 28th November 2011 http://crackberry.com/best-buy-usa-pulls-blackberry-playbook-its-online-offeringsSee Best Buy's update at the beginning of the article.Apologies to Mr. Duncan, it looks like this is a pretty common story across tech news sites. I am a little flabbergasted at how far it went though. People must just be expecting a repeat of the Touchpad fiasco.
    
    willjansen at 10:32pm 28th November 2011 Personally, I am more inclined towards the Playbook (and not just because I'm typing out this reply on one). From what I understand, the Fire's tailored more towards getting you to buy more Amazon stuff (eg: it's not exactly easy to play non-Amazon movies on the device). I'm not a big fan of vendor lock-in that is associated with a device like that.QNX is a nifty operating system. Huge fan of the task management system, far better than what I've experienced from iOS and Android. Calendar and email are glaring exceptions. Can't argue with that.
    Ian Bell at 10:53pm 28th November 2011 Ok, you have convinced me to find one. I give :)Now if I can only find one for $200.BTW, welcome to the site!
    willjansen at 11:09pm 28th November 2011 Not to beat a dead horse, buthttp://www.google.com/search?q=playbook sold outI posted another reply, apparently that think needs to be approved by moderators though.
    Ian Bell at 4:32am 29th November 2011 I think you destroyed the horse! It's powder. :)
    
    Ian Bell at 10:39am 2nd December 2011 Did you see this? Ouch.http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/rim-loses-half-a-billion-dollars-due-to-unsold-playbooks/
jesterking at 12:24pm 28th November 2011 Looks to me like RIM is in serious trouble. Just end it all, all ready!