RIM posts impressive earnings, co-CEO says PlayBook "way ahead" of iPad - Page 3

Well ahead in what sense? You can't make stuff like that up, because they are random guesses. The caching issue with the iPad is a RAM issue - i.e. not enough. iPad will solve that. iPad 1 users gonna have to suffer. Good job my brother is buying my iPad 1 from me for a good price and I'm upgrading.

Good first P.

That reminds me of the wag that reported after all the Apple Store break ins that several Microsoft Stores had also suffered break ins ... people were leaving their PCs there and escaping.

Best post in this thread. That's the bottom line.

The upgrade comment hits the nail on the head as to why iPad sales will be astronomical for years to come. They will follow the same model as iPod and iPhone. Any Apple enthusiast here check how many iPods and iPhones you have/had over the years! Apple enthusiasm is growing fast too.

We're already way ahead by almost -12 months.... when we finally release it in four months. What math?

Palm Pre = Good idea, failed because of timing and trying to beat Apple to the punch instead of actually making a complete product before shipping.

iPad = Good idea, succeeded because they didnt try to cram a desktop OS or smartphone UI onto a tablet jut to have something on the market right away. They waited a decade and now have the only tablet on the market worth measuring all other tablets by.

In this get it out the door now model is one of the worst shortsighted business decisions companies can make, but many make them because they are only look a quarter ahead with little to no regard for long term success.

Of course PlayBook will have its work cut out competing with iPad, but the one feature that caught my eye when it was launched was its ability to pair with a BB handset and share its 3G connection.

Could prove very attractive. Until Apple follows suit.

100% agree and the 'get it out now' model is a direct result of copying rather than innovating. Apple had all the time in the World to get iOS, iPad and iPhone right because they were the only ones going in that direction and that is the true benefit of innovation.

RIM posts impressive earnings, co-CEO says "This is good stuff I'm smoking."

That's better.

I recognize Balsillie's symptoms from having dealt in a previous life with increasingly desperate executives, who stand on the podium to hurl a verbal Hail Mary in the hopes of saving a fourth-and-long situation in the last minutes of a losing game. Late-Stage Bloviation is nearly always terminal. It usually takes a bit longer - three to five months usually - before an impatient board of directors pronounces last rites on the executive afflicted by the syndrome.

Blackberry models are often included in a BOGO promotion. In fact, Verizon is currently offering discounts, rebates and BOGO on all but one model, the Storm2. You can buy a Blackberry for as low as $49, and get another one free. I'm told that the handset maker still receives the full $ amount for the phone and the carrier subsidizes the free phone. It takes a little under a year for them to recoup the costs of the free phone.

Now, my guess is that Verizon is doing a lot of BOGO promos during the holiday season so they can have reduced inventory before the Verizon iPhone comes out. Once it does, the sales for Blackberrys and many Android models will likely have substantially fewer sales. Verizon is also trying to entice those buyers that may be waiting for an iPhone by offering very low prices on their current inventory. I've been told that Verizon has been stuck with a large inventory of Microsoft Kin phones. They may be re-released without the kin-loop features at a very low price and without the high data fees that helped kill the phone to begin with. It makes sense that Verizon does not want to be left with a large inventory of BB and Android phones when the iPhone is release and are doing everything they can to move them out of inventory. Although the sales numbers look good for BB now, it may be just be a temporary spike due to "dumping" rather than consumer demand.
The amazing thing is that there has never been a BOGO promo for the iPhone (at least in the US) and that is very good news for the carrier.

Balsillie responds: "I think people are tired of blazain telling them what to do."

so you're selling your iPad to "upgrade" to a product that doesn't exist yet and won't run the apps you've downloaded (and won't have any to download) or sync with your iTunes library of music and videos? Me, I'll do the real upgrade and upgrade to the iPad 2 when it comes out.

This blog post title should have been....

"RIM beats Apple in smartphone sales last quarter"

That is real news and points to the fact that the smartphone market is really up in the air. As far as the RIM tablet who cares since you cant even buy one today.

I assumed he meant upgrade to iPad 2!

Actually I would say that the big news is that RIM was off on new subscribers. After years of rapid growth, subscriber rates have plateaued. For an interesting analysis of why that's an ominous sign, see here.

that wouldn't be accurate because they don't have the same quarters and the market continues to grow.

Pressure makes people say the funniest things.

Reminds me of the title of a movie from the 80s: Say Anything.

Beat them in sales or profits?

despite the idiocy of the its two co-CEO's recent comments (what conversations they must have!), RIM is still doing OK and has real potential. but it also has big problems.

its latest quarterly report show sales and profits remaining very good. not booming like Apple, but steady - better than the other smartphone OEM's. RIM reports 5 million new subscribers - but does not say how many past subscribers it also lost to iOS and Android, probably a big number too. so its net subscriber growth is unknown. but the new subscribers account for the good dollar sales numbers.

RIM's big strength is that it is THE keyboard smartphone. consumers who put physical keyboards at the top of their priorities are always going to seriously consider low-priced RIM products. and that will always be 10%-20% of the market. its other big advantage is its entrenched enterprise market leadership. business IT always resists change, and despite the publicized opening of some big corporations to iPhone and the revival of Windows Phone 7, BB remains the standard issue business phone today around the world.

the tough challenge for RIM will be migrating these existing customers/market to its new OS, which it apparently realizes it has to do to remain viable for the long term. all the hype/spin we got from these two CEO's was a smokescreen to hide the risks. dual core! full web! well, at least they didn't say "open!" but for consumers, RIM needs something "sexy" to sell.

if RIM thinks Flash is going to give it some consumer market advantage, they are badly mistaken. Android already has that "partnership" with Adobe staked out. and trying to be a multimedia device is never going to really work for RIM - the competition (Apple and imitators) is way too far ahead with their media ecosystems for RIM to ever catch up.

what RIM needs to do is focus on its keyboard advantage and come up with the best all-purpose texting/messaging/mailing/video calling etc. smartphone for consumers who really want to do only that. the obvious play here is a totally unified in-box and "partnership" with FaceBook. RIM needs to sell a "FaceBook phone." there is a significant market now of FaceBook addicts who would buy one.

Add this all up and RIM can hold 20%+ of the market long term. do those two CEO dudes see this? probably not. they probably think they are more important than FaceBook.

Balsillie's confidence is totally justified. He has every reason to believe the PlayBook will trounce the competition. At the end of the day, people care most about: CIO friendliness, social collaboration, high performance, and not needing an app to access the web. Balsillie hit the nail on the head here, people. Wait... I think a pig just flew past my window...

yeah, android is "way ahead" of the iphone too

AppleInsider-After Research in Motion beat Wall Street expectations with its quarterly earnings Thursday, co-CEO Jim Balsillie asserted on the company's earnings call that the upcoming PlayBook 7-inch tablet is way ahead of Apple's iPad.

After reading thru some of the comments (I especially like the "Balmer-Lite" comparison), the one thing that seems to slip Balsillie's virtual BS is one small FACT....PlayBook hasn't even shipped yet! That makes Balsillie a STAND-ALONE idiot. He doesn't need Balmer's help anymore.

I think you meant twit.

Yes! The final act will be at a RIMM shareholders meeting -- where the co-Buffoons will dance across the stage, throwing Hershey's candies into the audience while crying out "Kisses for Everyone".

I think that this act was first performed by the former Branch Manager of the IBM Baltimore Metro Branch.

Mmmm... I wonder if RIM has a company song such as:

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex.../hailtoibm.wav



http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...music_IA1.html

They have better offer something besides Adobe Air / Adobe Flash for developing apps. That is all they would talk about during their presentation. It sounds like that is their development platform. If you watch the demonstration, the UI often didn't respond to his touches.

Not picking on you Dick but lets not adopt this meme of using juvenile names for competing products and leave that kind of nonsense for haters.

I think there were more than a couple Apple fans calling for more restraint regarding idiotic jokes about the iPad name. If the thing is called a playbook, lets just call it that.

They should both be tested for ibogaine abuse.


So does ibogaine.


Test Goocher too.

You see a lot of PlayBook demos where the tablet is lying on a flat surface rather than being held.

Also you see demos that seem not to sense many of the gestures.

I think that some of this has to do with the following:

1) the demonstrator is pointing (positioning his finger) over something on the screen, but not actually touching it.

2) the entire face surface is 'hot' (touch sensitive) even the bezel surrounding the display area.

3) The GUI uses touches on the bezel for system functions -- pull down a menu, switch between apps, send an app to the background, terminate (throw away) an app, etc.

As a result, I think the PlayBook designers have painted themselves into a corner:

-- you cannot comfortably hold the device in one or two hands without touching the bezel

-- touching the bezel may cause an undesired result


I suspect that this is unsettling to the user to the point that he is afraid to touch the surface for fear of unwanted results.

Instead, the user adapts -- and carefully positions his fingers over the surface, then makes very deliberate touches to the surface.

The user has to think about what he wants to do, then take 2 specific actions (position, then touch) to accomplish the task -- never quite sure of what will happen. It is rather stilted.


...That's what I call User Friendly... In fact it is 1 GHZ, Dual Core, 1 GB RAM User Friendly.


It is ironic that on the iPad the OS gets out of the way between you and your stuff, while on the PlayBook the the UI inserts itself, in a very unsettling way, between you and the OS.

I agree, and I apologize!

But I reserve the right to identify a buffoon when I see two!

4) Or perhaps the UI is simply a scripted mock up.

Second best joke in the thread, good one

I want this 'sillie's job. What a complete dumb ass.

Wouldn't RIM's presence and expertise in serving IT/Enterprise be an advantage over iPad/iPad2?

that's has not yet been introduced or offered for sale yet is "way ahead" is akin to advertising a product for sale at next to nothing ..when you don't have any in stock to actually sell.

What baloney

Given that Apple has folks like Lexus and Mercedes in the clutches, I think it won't be a huge fight to stay neck in neck with the Playbook

And since RIM is playing the 'designed for business' card, the iPad will easily take the general consumer sales

It certainly should! RIM has a proven reputation and contacts within IT.

What RIM lacks is a product.

It is not clear:
-- when the product will be available
-- if the product will be competitive, when available
-- if the 7" form factor meets enterprise and IT needs
-- if the SDK and app development enviroment is robust enough for enterprise and IT needs
-- if there is sufficient potential to attract 3rd-party developers
-- if enterprise and IT can afford ti wait 3-9 months on the promise iof a solution for their needs

The iPad is what is -- a known entity. Apps are available and being developed today. Will the PlayBook offer enough advantage for enterprise and IT to change their budgets and current plans?