play books

The co-CEOs of Research In Motion don't seem to have any regrets about how the launch of its PlayBook was handled.

That is rather interesting because, well, no one would say it went very smoothly.

On the conference call after today's disappointing earnings announcement, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis gave long-winded, meandering, and sometimes confusing answers as to why they wouldn't do anything different in the way the company presented, launched, and raised expectations of its first go at a touch-screen tablet.

To be clear, RIM said today it has shipped "approximately" 500,000 PlayBooks … Read more

Despite lowering its forecasts for the quarter in late April, Research in Motion announced first-quarter fiscal 2012 earnings today and still missed its revenue target by hundreds of millions of dollars. The mobile device maker also announced it will start layoffs during the second quarter.

RIM reported revenue for the quarter of $4.9 billion, down 12 percent from $5.6 billion in the previous quarter but up 16 percent from $4.2 billion during the same quarter a year ago. Earnings came in at $695 million, or $1.33 per share.

Analysts expected $5.15 billion in revenue and … Read more

Today is the first time customers in the U.K. can walk into a store and buy Research In Motion's new tablet, the PlayBook. Turns out, not every wireless carrier in the country is enthusiastic about offering it to customers.

U.K. carrier O2 made waves today when it sent e-mails to customers who had previously inquired about the PlayBook saying it "would not be selling" RIM's tablet. The reason, O2 said, is "unfortunately there are some issues with the end to end customer experience," according to an e-mail seen by Engadget.

An O2 … Read more

Research In Motion reports its fiscal first quarter results on Thursday, and analysts are decidedly gloomy about the company's prospects.

The big questions: did RIM's PlayBook tablet launch deliver sales momentum and did that device suck too much wind out of development for other products?

Reading through the research notes on RIM is a bit depressing. RIM isn't Nokia, but analysts are frustrated by the company's delayed products. RIM's Bold 9900 may not ship until September, and four more devices based on the BlackBerry OS 7, which used to be known as OS 6.1, … Read more

Research In Motion is ready to launch its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in an additional 16 markets.

The tablet will be made available to customers in the U.K., Spain, Germany, Australia, and several other countries within the next 30 days, RIM said. Currently, the BlackBerry PlayBook is available only in the U.S. and Canada.

Unlike much of its competition, RIM's tablet focuses on enterprise customers first. The tablet boasts a 7-inch display and runs the company's new tablet operating system. It includes dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and capture, and runs on a 1GHz dual-core … Read more

Keeping your favorite devices' OS up to date can be a chore for anyone. Luckily, updating the OS on the BlackBerry PlayBook is fairly streamlined and easy to do. In this guide we will show you how to update your PlayBook OS.

… Read more

After showing up in search results and being teased by a Sprint employee in a blog post last week, the 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook finally went on sale on Sprint's Web site today for $499. As the Wi-Fi-only version, Sprint will not be offering any additional services and the tablet won't require a contract.

Sprint announced last January at CES that it would carry the PlayBook by the summer, but until last week the carrier didn't offer any details. But then on Thursday, Gerald Evans, a Sprint public-sector market director for the Midwest region, said on his personal blog … Read more

Facing unrelenting competition from Apple's iPad, many rival tablet makers will build fewer tablets than originally planned, according to a J.P. Morgan analyst.

In a research note released yesterday, analyst Mark Moskowitz said that non-Apple tablet makers have gotten an early "dose of reality" by failing to produce a high-volume tablet that comes close to matching the demand for the iPad.

As a result of the "weak showing" of products such as Motorola's Xoom, Research In Motion's PlayBook, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab, many tablet makers have cut back on their plans … Read more

Search results on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for "Sprint Playbook" indicate that a 4G model of RIM's BlackBerry tablet could be on the way soon.

The search results show a Web page with the title, "Sprint | Introducing the BlackBerry 4G Playbook Tablet," though the Web page itself shows nothing beyond the ordinary Sprint site.

Accompanying text snippets add a little more but don't reveal anything that hasn't already been announced: "Enjoy front and rear-facing HD cameras and a Flash-capable Web browser on the blazing-fast Sprint 4G network...The BlackBerry 4G PlayBook tablet arrives this summer," the Yahoo search result said.

Research in Motion currently sells only a Wi-Fi model of the PlayBook so far. A PlayBook for Sprint's 4G network is due this summer, RIM said at CES in January.

The PlayBook is geared in part for the corporate crowd that's been the core market for the BlackBerry phones. A 4G option, while costing more to purchase and operate, has the advantage of working where Wi-Fi isn't available, a big advantage for road warriors. … Read more