[slingxshot]

RIM responds to reports of poor PlayBook sales, high return rate at major retailer

The source of the reported comment is anonymous and unknown to RIM, but the comment is certainly inconsistent with the positive feedback we have received from our main retail partners. As previously indicated, RIM will provide a business update on BlackBerry PlayBook results on June 16.

For reference, here is a public statement recently offered by Best Buy:

“Best Buy has had great success selling BlackBerry smartphones in North America, so our sales expectations for the BlackBerry PlayBook were very high. To date, we have far exceeded those expectations and we’re finding that customers are even more interested in purchasing once they’ve tested the PlayBook in the store."

[semicoln]

Lol BGR stands by the story and their "sources"

[ifarlow]

Yeah... the original "article" is weak water cooler gossip at best. I stopped following BGR a while back as they really aren't anything special. People swear by them, but I can't figure out why, especially when "articles" such as this one crop up.

[Intosh]

Is the BGR's source the same source who said RIM had major battery problems with the PB?

And the highly gullible naive people call us, who are denouncing this kinda BS "journalism", conspiracy theorists.

(I didn't click on the BGR's article -- don't wanna pay them ad money.)

[mandony]

Strange that RIM should have even responded to that trash!
Slow sale?
Fact is, the PB was not advertised until release, there were very few US and Canadian retailers upon release and international sales have just begun.
On the other hand, as far as I know, anyone who wanted to order retail was able to get the PB within a day (for example from Staples).

[trsbbs]

If it's not Best Buy who is it?

Staples? That wouldn't surprise nor bother me.

Tim

[UnifiedTechs]

If it's not Best Buy who is it?

Staples? That wouldn't surprise nor bother me.

Tim

IF, and I say IF there is any truth to this I believe the key would be the Staples recall, if the tablets were unable to be activated properly on only 1 retailer would that not cause a higher incidence of returns then normal for that retailer when customers can't get it to work?

[semicoln]

Like I said in a BGR comment, the problem may be with the retailer and not the product. The PB doesn't sound like its been very hard to sell anywhere else and not nearly 90% off from expectations. Stick it somewhere in the back way out of view and don't train your employees and you won't sell hardly any.

[Smiley88]

Those freaking BGR morons. They have nothing better to post. They should stick with apple news.

[raremage]

Personally I think it's great that RIM responded tom this report in a positive way.

Now if they would respond on the matter of another update, I'd really be happy.

[BaconMunch]

IF It was Staples, they more than deserved it. Many people had pre-ordered and applied coupons. Staples did not honour the dates of the coupons and then later on went to exclude all tablets from coupon use.

I remember seeing Staples marketing themselves as THE place to go for tablets...they sure blew that one. I went and pre-ordered off Bestbuy and got $65 in Reward Zone.

[Thumbtyper]

Here is Best Buy response week#1

“Best Buy has had great success selling BlackBerry smartphones in North America, so our sales expectations for the BlackBerry PlayBook were very high. To date, we have far exceeded those expectations and we’re finding that customers are even more interested in purchasing once they’ve tested the PlayBook in the store."

Here is Best Buy's response today:
“While we cannot comment on specific sales numbers, we continue to see consumer demand for the BlackBerry PlayBook,” a Best Buy representative told All Things D on Friday. “This seems to be pretty typical of the excitement we’re seeing from our customers and employees around tablets in general.”

"Far Exceeded expectations" to "Pretty typical" of tablets in general

[sk8er_tor]

Most of the recalled PlayBooks at Staples never even made it to the public. They were mostly in Staples' stock and weren't sold.

[narci]

If it's staples, it's thier own fault given they took a load of preorders, cancelled them on customers and said it's not actually cancelled and then the coupon fiasco that they renegged on put a sour tastw in customer's mouths.

If it was Sears...geez...who buys electronics at Sears these days?

I wonder if thier source only got 10 PB's in and sold 1 because it's located in the middle of Flint.

[Thumbtyper]

I think the volume of retailers that RIM chose to use will produce a large initial Shipped number with an abysmal sell through after returns and exchanges are factored in.

Not unlike Samsung which reported 1 million sales in December which turned out to be strictly channel stuffing.

[evolutionPlaybook]

I bought my PB from BestBuy, but I went to Staples first. I was playing with the PB when one of their associates came over and told me that xoom is a better option and also a better buy. I looked at him and told him if I needed his assitance I would ask for his services. Few minutes later left Staples to go to Bestbuy where I purchased my PB.

Associates at these retailers have a huge impact on the sales of a product and 90% of them are doing a terrible job and are uninformed about these products and on top of that 8 out of 10 employees own an iphone, or I should say that every other person that I interact with owns an iphone.

[slingxshot]

I bought my PB from BestBuy, but I went to Staples first. I was playing with the PB when one of their associates came over and told me that xoom is a better option and also a better buy. I looked at him and told him if I needed his assitance I would ask for his services. Few minutes later left Staples to go to Bestbuy where I purchased my PB.

Associates at these retailers have a huge impact on the sales of a product and 90% of them are doing a terrible job and are uninformed about these products and on top of that 8 out of 10 employees own an iphone, or I should say that every other person that I interact with owns an iphone.

My staples experience on 4/19 was ********. The guy kept telling me that I will need "open WiFi Connection" like 20 times... I'm like okay.. okay.. I want to buy this thing already..lets go... he said that you need a WiFi connection with no pass. Guess what I came to work, the WiFi connection that I hit had a pass and I updated the OS fine and was fine...

Man that really frustrated me with the false info.

[DivideBYZero]

F**k BGR. His access to a gimp inside RIM made him back in the day of the Pearl and now they try and shoot them down for hits whenever they can. Plus most of their articles are reposts of decent blogs, anyway.

[bobalooski]

"are even more interested in purchasing once they�ve tested the PlayBook in the store"

This doesn't say they are indeed making a purchase...just interested.

[bobalooski]

I bought my PB from BestBuy, but I went to Staples first. I was playing with the PB when one of their associates came over and told me that xoom is a better option and also a better buy. I looked at him and told him if I needed his assitance I would ask for his services. Few minutes later left Staples to go to Bestbuy where I purchased my PB.

Associates at these retailers have a huge impact on the sales of a product and 90% of them are doing a terrible job and are uninformed about these products and on top of that 8 out of 10 employees own an iphone, or I should say that every other person that I interact with owns an iphone.

I bought mine at Best Buy also. The sales person could have cared less which one I bought - PB, iPad2, etc.

[snuci]

I bought some from Staples in Canada and there was a shortage of 64GB models. The sales associate had to call around to other stores and once he found some, the other store didn't want to give them up (but they did). I actually had to buy one that was 32GB.

[Xaerius]

I believe that more consumers are interested in buying a Playbook after trying it in a store because I wouldn't have bought mine if I didn't test out the demo unit first. This is a great device with a lot of potential. It is unfortunate that some people are feeling so threatened by the PB that they are trying to discourage others from finding out how good it really is.

[sportline]

few days ago engadget was bad and stupid and biased. now bgr has fallen the same hole. see the pattern here? people can't stand negative news about a company which does'nt really bother about them

does anyone ever talk about rim's stupid power button? how come people design such a stupid power button? anywhere else from nokia, palm, htc, apple, etc, power button is always prominent, wide and easy to press. what we have is stupid industrial design. nothing less.

[Skeevecr]

few days ago engadget was bad and stupid and biased. now bgr has fallen the same hole. see the pattern here? people can't stand negative news about a company which does'nt really bother about them

If you look at all engadget's non-apple reviews you would see that they are biased e.g. you have phrases like best laptop they have used for a thinkpad that then scored only an 8, whereas a barely upgraded macbook refresh gets a 9.

BGR has been useless for years for anything that isn't a hardware leak, their dates and other figures tend to be laughable and their editorials not much better.

The thing with all these sites is to just flick through them on the offchance there is something worth reading and they do at least have the advantage that they didn't inflict a terrible redesign on their visitors like gizmodo did.

[slbailey1]

Lol BGR stands by the story and their "sources"

There source must be Staples.