[9Jer99]

Wow how embarrassing.
Best Buy... being right about something.
Now I know why the shelves of the local Best Buy were absent of the Playbook.
They had figured out Thorny long before we did.
How embarrassing.

[southlander]

I really doubt they knew it wasn't getting BlackBerry 10 since no one knew it for sure until BlackBerry said so.

Additionally I doubt if it had been getting BlackBerry 10 that Best Buy would have kept it in stock. It just did not sell well. That is the sole reason they would need to drop it -- like any retail outfit.

It's just another SKU to them, not some personal quest to push a certainly technology out to the masses. Lol.

[jegs2]

Best Buy dumped the Playbook, because they weren't selling.

[Cozz4ever]

Why would BestBuy support a product when it's manufacture, BlackBerry wasn't supporting it?

[agp101]

The playbook is over two years old. Just get over it already.

[june282013]

Retailers like Best Buy probably have the most up-to-the-minute data on how well devices like this are selling, return rate, customer response, etc. When you have over a thousand stores spread throughout the geographic distribution consumer electronics, you have real-time information about what is selling.

Contrary to what HP TouchPad fans would like to believe, devices like this don't magically catch on after sitting on the shelf for months. You get your initial pent-up interest from early adopters, a leveling out for some time depending on popularity, and then it's the bargain bin or discount coupons after that.

Who do analysts call when they want to know how devices like this are selling? Retailers. There's no mystery as to why Best Buy dumped the Playbook (or the HP TouchPad).

[amazinglygraceless]

Wow how embarrassing.
Best Buy... being right about something.
Now I know why the shelves of the local Best Buy were absent of the Playbook.
They had figured out Thorny long before we did.
How embarrassing.

What is embarrassing is your attempt to slag Mr Heins who at the time of the Playbook release was not in charge of BBRY.

[Nigelbrown]

Can you find an ipad 1st gen at best buy? Hell it's hard enough to find a 2nd generation. It's how tech works, you sell, then move onto the next thing
.....

Posted via CB10

[Speedygi]

I'm not even entirely sure the BlackBerry Playbook 4G LTE was released in the U.S.A. Anyone is welcome to correct me...

Posted via CB10

[njblackberry]

What is embarrassing is your attempt to slag Mr Heins who at the time of the Playbook release was not in charge of BBRY.

Before he gets a complete free pass (not that you are suggesting that), let's remember that he was not a new hire to BlackBerry.

From Wikipedia: Heins has been at BlackBerry since 2007. He rose through the ranks starting as Senior Vice President of BlackBerry Handheld Business Unit; Chief Operating Officer of Product Engineering; and finally Chief Operating Officer of Product and Sales since July 2011 before becoming CEO.

He was a senior officer during the release of the PlayBook and overall decline of BlackBerry. He is not an innocent or the victim. Nor was he CEO.

[amazinglygraceless]

@ njblackberry: I hear you and agree. My point (as you surmised) is laying the blame for the PlayBook solely on one individual, especially one not in the position to make ultimate and final decisions is asinine.

[njblackberry]

Correct - there is plenty of responsibility to go around.

[amazinglygraceless]

I'm not even entirely sure the BlackBerry Playbook 4G LTE was released in the U.S.A. Anyone is welcome to correct me...

This is from their US "Where To Buy" page, so I believe you are correct

[Pulkit Kamal]

Best Buy dumped the Playbook, because they weren't selling.

Anti joke chicken. Lol.

Pulkit Kamal a proud Z10 owner. 24F40D3B

[Speedygi]

Even so, why were promises made about an update coming then? If Thorsten had no love for the Playbook, he would have known not to attempt the move. But he promised it and now he has to take a fair bit of the blame, unfortunately...

At this point, it really doesn't matter now whether Thorsten was a new or old hire, is it?

Posted via CB10

[anon(4044683)]

The playbook is over two years old. Just get over it already.

Get over of Blackberry's lies? Paid full price TRUSTING blackberry! Waited over one year just get Email support!

[anon(4044683)]

What is embarrassing is your attempt to slag Mr Heins who at the time of the Playbook release was not in charge of BBRY.

The only thing embarrassing is fanboys trying to justify BlackBerry's BS. Shame on you guys!

[june282013]

Here are things that should surprise no one:

1. With the success of the iPad, the expectation of every company in the mobile space was "Where is your tablet?"
2. Developing the hardware and the software for a tablet takes time - a lot more time than customers or shareholders expect. This is especially true if the established competition continues to raise the bar. It's very likely that anything that is launched will probably have significant shortcomings.
3. While a Blackberry tablet may have some attraction for existing customers, there really is no compelling reason why most of them would gravitate towards the Playbook. It's pretty safe to say, a this point, that the vast majority of tablet-buying Blackberry owners bought iPads.
4. If a tablet isn't selling then retailers would be the first to know and move on to what the customer wants.
5. Once you aren't selling very many new devices, it would be foolish to invest valuable software development resources significantly updating devices that have already sold.
6. Management never admits to the above. It's much easier to stall because every quarter that goes buy it matters to fewer and fewer customers.

[jegs2]

I was one who was really surprised by the success of the iPad, since at the time I asserted that it was essentially nothing more than an over-sized iPod Touch with a much higher price tag.

Hats off to Apple for making folks believe they needed the thing.

[boffinboy]

Perhaps you can't blame the present CEO for the whole sorry story, but the fact is BlackBerry have made wrong-turn after wrong-turn to get to this point, despite assurances that they were back on the right track with it, and that it was going somewhere. It never was and it never did.

Now they really need to do the right thing by those who bought it and open the bootloader and let the open source community take the device where it should have gone already.

[raino]

If Best Buy was able to figure things out before others did, they wouldn't be in the mess they are in.

[amazinglygraceless]

The only thing embarrassing is fanboys trying to justify BlackBerry's BS. Shame on you guys!

Fanboy? Seriously? Expecting a modicum of intellectual honesty is how YOU define fanboy?

[june282013]

If Best Buy was able to figure things out before others did, they wouldn't be in the mess they are in.

Well, you can also view them as the last man standing in a brick-and-mortar retail electronics sector that has been decimated by online and big-box reatailers. They certainly did better than just about everyone else in this area.

[Pilot Prop]

Wow how embarrassing.
Best Buy... being right about something.
Now I know why the shelves of the local Best Buy were absent of the Playbook.
They had figured out Thorny long before we did.
How embarrassing.

LOL good joke. I guess when I want inside info on BlackBerry I should just swing by the local BestBuy store.

I am disappointed that the features promised to come to PB never did...and I don't even own a tablet. I can only imagine how PB owners feel about that.

However, can we end the overdone rants etc about a 2 y/o device.

Maybe there will be another tablet with BB10 on it at launch.

Posted via Pilot's Q10

[raino]

Well, you can also view them as the last man standing in a brick-and-mortar retail electronics sector that has been decimated by online and big-box reatailers. They certainly did better than just about everyone else in this area.

That's true, I guess. They do have local B&M competitors (Fry's Electronics, Micro Center, etc.) but nothing as big on a national scale as them. But still...$40 HDMI cables were going to keep them afloat for only a while before people figured out they could buy them at an eighth of the cost online.