Outside the tech world a delay of a few weeks for a product launch is nothing to write home about. Unfortunately when it comes to smartphones and tablets, weeks carry the weight of months and months age like years. This is particularly true in a crowded space such as the world of Android Honeycomb tablets where even the smallest manufacturer has come out of the woodwork to offer a tablet. Are supply constraints or the fierce competition from the crowded Honeycomb market to blame for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 delay?
Tagged ‘BlackBerry PlayBook’
Many have tried, many have failed. According to DigiTimes, Amazon has made the bold move of ordering between 1.5 and two million touch panels for its upcoming tablet line. Allegedly, the company plans to ship four million tablets by the end of 2011. While ambitious plans are commendable, we’d be remiss if we didn’t question whether Amazon was overestimating demand?
It’s the mid-way point of the working week, so let’s stop and take stock of all that’s happened so far in tech, shall we? Read on for our round up of all the morning’s news, here in the lunchtime lowdown.
Here’s a rumour that’s bound to inspire conflicted feelings among BlackBerry fans. While the BlackBerry PlayBook has received mixed reviews, a new report suggests the planned BlackBerry PlayBook 10in model will be scrapped. N4BB says RIM will make the change to focus on a new QNX-based Blackberry.
It claims that the new BlackBerry running the BlackBerry PlayBook’s QNX OS will have a 1.2GHz single-core processor like the current BlackBerry Bold 9900 and a 4.3in display.
RIM previously said that it wouldn’t launch a QNX-powered BlackBerry without a dual-core CPU inside but it could very well have changed its mind. If the BlackBerry PlayBook 10in does get ditched, the US will still see a BlackBerry PlayBook 4G in October.
Out TBC | £TBC | BlackBerry (via N4BB)
The cloud of bad news around the BlackBerry PlayBook launch has got bigger with Dolby Laboratories suing RIM for patent infringement. The audio technology firm says RIM is willfully infringing on a grab bag of its patents.
Dolby says the technology is used in a number of BlackBerry phones and the BlackBerry PlayBook. It also claims that all the other major smartphone and tablet makers, including Apple, license the same technology.
It says the lawsuit was a last resort after RIM declined to pay and it wants damages and BlackBerry Playbook sales halted. That’s not likely to happen soon – lawsuits of this kind can grind on for years – but it’s another headache RIM could do without.
Amidst the Wall Street hoopla surrounding Research in Motion, yesterday’s Q1 fiscal 2012 results actually revealed several impressive findings. Namely, the company shipped 500,000 BlackBerry Playbooks during its first quarter of availability. That’s twice the number of Motorola Xooms shipped in its first quarter.
Even more impressive than the number of PlayBooks is that RIM managed to reach these figures despite delays and limited availability. If RIM had kicked off with a worldwide launch instead of a North America-only affair, who knows how many 7-inch slates would have been shipped.
It’s easy to round on RIM right now. The BlackBerry PlayBook arrived to lukewarm reviews, O2 canned it yesterday, and overnight it’s earnings call revealed a drastic drop in profits from $934m in the previous quarter to $695m. The company has announced a new round of layoffs and the number of people excited about new BlackBerry releases would probably fit into a small pub function room.
But BlackBerry is far from dead and there’s plenty it can do to arrest the decline and put itself back in the fight with Android and the iPhone. As strange as it sounds given low sales (it’s shipped 500,000 but it’s not clear how many are sat on the shelves) and the lacklustre response, the BlackBerry PlayBook was a good start. RIM just needs to go further and faster…
It’s official BlackBerry PlayBook UK launch day but if you’re on O2, you’re out of luck. The network has decided to ditch RIM’s first tablet and is emailing customers who expressed an interest in buying one to explain why it has had a change of heart.
While plenty of places (including Currys and PC World) will be stocking the tablet, it’s bad news for RIM that such a major network has lost faith in it. Read on to find out why O2 dropped the BlackBerry PlayBook…