[wvafan]

Ok everyone, I'm a newbie and I want to know about RIM's plans for the future or are there any?

Playbook is a great device. Just bought my 64 gig 3 days ago. It walks the dog around the other tabs that cost more.

About 3 months ago when HP closed out it's tablet division and had a big fire sale on it's Touchpad for $99 everyone went crazy. Now, you can't give the damned things away because you might as well have a hand crank telephone for all the good it will do you.

So my question is this:

What's RIM gonna do now?

If you listened to Kim Komando 2 months ago, she was talking like RIM was also was going to have a fire sale to get out of the tablet market, so when I saw these PB's go on sale for $199-$299, I wasn't surprized.

But, I had to buy one, and I had to get a 64.....I just had to.

I love it, but what's the future?

Does anybody know if this price drop is just RIM's way of saying "here we are, buy one!" Or is this RIM's farewell to the tablet?

[Psych1]

Truth gets deleted on this site - better ask somewhere else.

[MBA_STOCKDOGS]

If RIM wasn't committed to the PlayBook ™ why would they have spent the time and resources on os2?

[Peritaxis]

I took a ride in my time machine to 2084 so I could answer your question about the future. It is bad news I'm afraid. Everywhere on every wall inside and out there were giant iPads with the clone of Steve Jobs commanding the citizens to love Apple. Everyone walked around zombie like with iPhones surgically implanted in their heads where Steve Jobs reminded everyone they must honor and obey. It was horrible.

ROFL.

To the OP,

Just live in the NOW and enjoy what the present has to offer... which is OS 2.0.

[byul]

Just enjoy your PlayBook and don't worry too much about RIM, i'm sure they will bring us more exciting stuff.
Just keep reading your daily news on CrackBerry and you are updated top notch.
We just live once, to just keep worrying and asking around what's next is just bothersome for yourself,
live/spent with the good things you have now.

[wvafan]

If RIM wasn't committed to the PlayBook ™ why would they have spent the time and resources on os2?

There could be a reason for that. The fact is, they still had a half million PB's to sell. These all had to be guaranteed for a year. So, RIM had to do something to make these 500,000 or so PB's attractive to potential buyers and keep those buyers happy for a while.

The news I read is that RIM says they are committed to the tablet market, specifically the Playbook.

I think they are still evaluating what to do.

Now as far as we are all concerned, even a guy like me who just bought a PB three days ago, we will all be fine.

As long as RIM keeps supporting our devices for a while, we will be ok.

I mean, how long does a computer last anyway? A couple of years maybe? I know that I buy a new laptop just about every year. The buttons get all worn out and I'm not happy with last year's model, and I'm am looking for the next big thing by the same time next year, maybe couple of years later anyway.

As far as we are concerned, I would bet that by this same time next year, a lot of us will have dropped ours in a mud puddle, or the screens will be cracked, or the on-off button and the volume control will be worn out, and half of us will be shopping for our next tablet anyway. So, I really don't think if RIM drops the PB it will kill any of us, because we will be taken care of for at least the next several months.

But I just wanted to know what they are going to do, not because I fear I bought an Edsel, but because I think The PB is a great device.

My guess is, that as I said before, RIM is still trying to decide what to do, and I would bet that it will hinge on two factors: 1) money. It's always money. Did RIM actually lose money by slashing the price, or did they simply make less profit? I think too many people in business shoot themselves in the foot by looking too hard at percentage, rather than the bottom line net. If I am RIM, I would much rather sell 500,000 units at $100 each profit, than sell 100,000 at $300 each profit. So, did RIM lose, or did they make less per unit, but still make more on the overall net? That will be deciding factor number one, and it will depend on whether whoever makes this call will be looking too hard at percentage, or whether he will accept bottom line profit as his indicator. Factor number 2) will be whether they can still find retailers willing to stock Playbooks. I read that Best Buy has cancelled future PB orders when RIM slashed the price. This could be because they fear the future, or it could be because lower price means a lower cut for them. If they think they can set (for example) the ACER Iconia on the shelve at $400 bucks a pop, where they get say a $200 mark up on it, rather than the PB at $300 where they only get maybe $100 mark up on it, then they might not want to stock the PB. So finding retailers to sell the PB will have to be a factor in their decision.

But all that is simply my theory.

The bottom line is, I don't think it really matters as far as the current units we own right now. I think our units will be worn out and we will all be looking for the next before RIM's decision affects us anyway. But that's just how I see it right now.

[Goldwing07]

Sometimes it's like allot of things in the world ----here today ---- gone tomorrow ,but for now One thing is sure, RIM is still here the last time I checked. Have the faith rim rim rim,pb pb pb, bb bb bb.

[auditman]

Ok everyone, I'm a newbie and I want to know about RIM's plans for the future or are there any?

Playbook is a great device. Just bought my 64 gig 3 days ago. It walks the dog around the other tabs that cost more.

About 3 months ago when HP closed out it's tablet division and had a big fire sale on it's Touchpad for $99 everyone went crazy. Now, you can't give the damned things away because you might as well have a hand crank telephone for all the good it will do you.

So my question is this:

What's RIM gonna do now?

If you listened to Kim Komando 2 months ago, she was talking like RIM was also was going to have a fire sale to get out of the tablet market, so when I saw these PB's go on sale for $199-$299, I wasn't surprized.

But, I had to buy one, and I had to get a 64.....I just had to.

I love it, but what's the future?

Does anybody know if this price drop is just RIM's way of saying "here we are, buy one!" Or is this RIM's farewell to the tablet?

Doesn't really what the future of rim is. As long as their products fits your needs today that's what counts. Unless your kinda invested heavily in $$$ I wouldn't think much about it.

[herculesinwyoming]

I get 5 years from my laptops. And I expect the same for my tablet, a new laptop a year is just wasteful spending.

[erodenero]

I would think they lost money by slashing the price, if the kindle fire which is a step below the pb sells at a loss for 199. An extra camera, ram, bluetooth and whatever the else the fire is missing, you do the math. Amazon makes up its losses on content, rim also makes some money from content, but not anywhere near the amount amazon does. rim is hoping to get every 1st gen playbook into as many consumer's hands as they can so that devs will have a large enough audience for their apps, by the time the 2nd gen playbooks and bb10 phones come out the app catalogue should be filled out enough to make it viable..or atleast thats the plan. More apps = more attractive platform to consumers, but consumers wont buy into a platform with no apps, rim will have a hard time convincing devs to develop for a platform without a substantial amount of users....chicken and egg once again.

[wvafan]

I would think they lost money by slashing the price, if the kindle fire which is a step below the pb sells at a loss for 199. An extra camera, ram, bluetooth and whatever the else the fire is missing, you do the math.

My math tells me that it doesn't cost that much to pay some 14 year old in Bejing 2 bucks a day to build bluetooth units. You would be surprized how cheap all these parts really are. The money is in R&D which has long ago been bought and paid for.

I wouldn't be surprized at all if RIM still made money on these, the question is, will they see it as worth it? or could this even be another possibility that I just thought about: are they seeding the market? The price slash could also be by design to get units out there in an attept to get people interested in them. Once the units are out there being demo'd by satisfied users, maybe they intend a re-release at a higher price.

But again, all this is theory. I just wondered if somebody else knew something more. guess we will all see.

[erodenero]

The price slash could also be by design to get units out there in an attept to get people interested in them. Once the units are out there being demo'd by satisfied users, maybe they intend a re-release at a higher price.

But again, all this is theory. I just wondered if somebody else knew something more. guess we will all see.

Agreed the price slash is to get more units out there but i doubt the playbook prices will be raised back up again. If they are intending a rerelease at a higher price it is for a hspa+ model and/or an lte model. Rereleasing the wifi tab at higher than current sale price would hurt any chance they have of moving units, which they seem to be doing at the current price. This is all speculation anyhow, but seems like a logical route.