I guess it depends on what you mean by failure, and whom you consider credible. Clearly, though, you would agree that RIM expected to sell more Playbooks then they did early on, as evidenced by the number produced in April and May of last year? And you would agree they expected to sell them at the same price as the iPad when in fact customers are willing to pay about half that?
Maybe failure is overstating it. Disappointment? To me it will be interesting to see where they price them post February.
From ATD (WSJ) today. I don't know if you consider them credible and unbiased.
"Evidently the holidays didn’t bring much joy to Research in Motion and its struggling PlayBook tablet. Despite steep holiday discounts, the company continues to grapple with its unsold PlayBook inventory, which weighs heavy on it as it heads into the new year. And it’s taking increasingly desperate measures to unload it."
RIM Slashes All PlayBook Prices to $299 - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD