RIM loses half a billion dollars due to unsold and discounted PlayBooks

December 2, 2011 By Jeffrey Van Camp

RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is finally selling, but the $300 discount has cost the company $485 million during the last three months.

It’s sometimes good to bet big, but it’s never fun to lose big. Research in Motion has lost almost half a billion dollars in the three-month period that just ended on Nov. 26 (Q3 2011), posting a pre-tax write off of $485 million due to unsold and discounted BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, reports the AP. The PlayBook, which launched in April, never took off at its $500 price point and had to be discounted to $300 and now $200 over Thanksgiving weekend. Though the steep discount has led to a sales surge, RIM is now losing a hefty amount on every tablet it sells.

As for sales, RIM said that it shipped 150,000 PlayBooks to stores in Q3, but sold slightly more, indicating that there were unsold PlayBooks at some retailers. BlackBerry smartphones continue to sell, however. RIM moved 14.1 million BlackBerry phones during hte quarter. The big BlackBerry outage in October, which took down service for customers all across the globe, has cost the company $50 million so far.

So the PlayBook is finally selling, but RIM is paying dearly to make it happen. Will this keep the tablet alive long enough for RIM’s promised BlackBerry Tablet OS version 2.0 to come out in February, even with fierce competition from the Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet? If you’ve bought a PlayBook recently, let us know what you think of it and if you’re actually using it regularly.

Showing 21 comments

Michael Schmitt at 1:49pm 3rd December 2011 The Morons that like to take the time away from their iToys to comment are the Actual Losers that are bored of their iToys. Get a Life Losers!
1. Jeffrey Van Camp at 4:32pm 3rd December 2011 What is with all of the random capitalization, dude? Haha. What if they are commenting from their "iToys?" Hmm?
  1. Michael Schmitt at 4:39pm 3rd December 2011 Still proves they're bored with their toys! So ummm dude, when you going to leave all the negativity alone, and write something worth something? Like Apple using Carrier IQ? Oh, I forgot... You're blogging from your iToy! Have fun with that!?
    Jeffrey Van Camp at 5:02pm 3rd December 2011 It proves that they comment on what they read. Not sure what ya mean or what this has to do with the PlayBook. Apple using Carrier IQ would be a negative story and I did actually write a story up on that, along with plenty of good news when it happens. I am writing from a Sony Vaio. Is that an iToy?
    Michael Schmitt at 5:31pm 3rd December 2011 It proves they have nothing better to do from their iToys! Just exactly what I said. Where is this so called Story of the Carrier IQ from Apple? I haven't seen it... By the way, regardless of what negative spin that you have on this BlackBerry Playbook. It has sold out everywhere! Obviously, if it was such a big piece of crap, it wouldn't be sold out! You obviously don't understand that they are lowering the price to get Developers and consumers ready for BBX, when it becomes prime time. They have a lot more going for them than you can imagine with BBX, but instead of doing your proper research; you chose to be a big piece of crap and throw negative spins on everything BlackBerry. Is that good journalism? To me, that's a big fat NO!
    Jeffrey Van Camp at 5:43pm 3rd December 2011 The BlackBerry PlayBook hit shelves in April and RIM just lost $485 million dollars on it in this quarter alone because it was selling so poorly that it had to be slashed to $200. People will buy anything if the price is low enough. Look at the HP TouchPad.I have nothing against the PlayBook in theory and actually gave it a rather positive review when it came out, but RIM hasn't delivered on its promises since then. This isn't just a negative spin on BB PlayBook sales. It's just a fact that it isn't selling well and had to be slashed dramatically in price.http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/did-best-buy-pull-the-playbook-or-did-it-sell-out/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/tablet-reviews/blackberry-playbook-review/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/rim-downgraded-as-200-playbook-vanishes/I own a PlayBook. It just doesn't get much use because it doesn't have the features that other tablets have. I'm sorry that news isn't better. I had high hopes for the PlayBook. I don't know much about the upcoming BBX yet, but I'm all ears on how it might reignite the brand beyond my imagination. In any case, this isn't an article about BBX and the future, it's an article about the PlayBook sales in Q3.
    Michael Schmitt at 5:57pm 3rd December 2011 As far as I'm concerned, BlackBerry could come out with an awesome phone or a 10' tablet that could throw the iPhone/iPad into the pit of fire. However, because The American Investors want an American Company to win. They will throw in Negative Spins, and say it doesn't have enough apps, or whatever they want to say to stop people from buying it. Regardless of how bad "Antennagate" or "MobileMe" or "DST" or "New Years Bug" was on the iPhone, there wasn't 50 Negative blogs on it per hour rehashing over and over again, and simply was swept under the rug. I'll be back to see if you are bashing a BBX phone when they appear.
    Jeffrey Van Camp at 6:11pm 3rd December 2011 That argument is very black and white. This isn't an up and down war between RIM and Apple (or America and Canada). Asian maanufacturers like Samsung and HTC are quite popular. If we Americans hate RIM then how do you explain the years of fantastic growth and press coverage? The difference is that RIM did not recognize and has not adapted to a huge industry shift. Unfortunately, Apple ignited that shift.Apple got a ton of negative coverage over the antenna issue, but it didn't slow the phones sales. I guarantee that any negative apple story gets more rehashing than a negative BB story. Readers want to hear about apple.
    Michael Schmitt at 6:32pm 3rd December 2011 I'm sure, we will see... QNX is used in cars, RIM will not only shift into Tablets, Superphones, but yet in cars soon. We'll see if the Negativity still follows them for shifting into that before Apple does, cause as far as I am concerned; The rest are copycats and non-innovators. It's a "Apple World", and if your not in it, You're not cool! Do you care if you're not cool? The rest of the OS's won't be around in 5 years, they are very limited to what they can transform in to.. Apple finally got OTA updates in IOS 5... Really, who is behind the curve? Yet still can't do it in bits and pieces because of it's architecture. I'm gonna want to stand behind a company that has Stability, Reliability, Cloud Services not only in my pocket, but in my car and various other places. What company are you going to put your money 5 years from now. Make fun of them now, but there is a reason they stand behind a Company that makes the OS for Medical Equipment, Casino Machines, Car Entertainment, International Space Stations, Military Equipment, etc; instead of going to Android or Windows Phone 7 OS. I've said way too much. They're just in a transitional phase that won't last forever, and the one's that believe in them won't be left crying with empty pockets 5 years down the road.
Vixay Sysouthavongsa at 1:44pm 2nd December 2011 actually loved the blackberry tablet user interface. but hated that there were no apps whats so ever to download unlike an ipad or droid tablet. If they can figure out how to get more apps on their marketplace I think it will improve. Also you can't compete at the same iPad price level when you don't have the same amount of apps and based your whole marketing on its Flash capabilities.
1. Jeffrey Van Camp at 4:34pm 3rd December 2011 Totally with you. The interface is awesome. I love the universal gestures. But RIM has failed to deliver relevant apps beyond that.
Mar Jun Noya Iting at 8:48pm 2nd December 2011 price pr0blem maybe., expensive.!
Dave Ogba at 8:35pm 2nd December 2011 send them to me to sell all over Africa! RIM, wake up!!
Matt Bolt at 8:29pm 2nd December 2011 The pre Christmas fire sale is on the HORIZON!!
Chris Johnson at 8:16pm 2nd December 2011 Well, the PlayBook was a poor job done by RIM; a bad Rim Job, if you will.
Jon Finkelstein at 8:16pm 2nd December 2011 losers.
Blake Tibbetts at 8:16pm 2nd December 2011 FIRESALE.
Rick Case at 8:15pm 2nd December 2011 And the lesson learned is...,
Todd Gross at 8:10pm 2nd December 2011 well if they were not so damm expensive.. people would snap them up just like they did the HP touchpads
1. Jeffrey Van Camp at 1:44pm 2nd December 2011 That's what's happening right now. They are now $200.
  1. Lorne Hammond at 10:35pm 2nd December 2011 Thats the problem with it, they're not worth $200.00