Jackson Jambalaya

Best Buy cut the price of RIM's Playbook by $200 last week. USA Today reported:

"The PlayBook's price was slashed by $200 Thursday at Best Buy, and technology analysts speculated that the company could halt manufacture of the devices even as the Canadian company denied any such plans.

"We believe RIM has stopped production of its PlayBook and is actively considering exiting the tablet market," Collins Stewart tech analyst John Vinh said in a report. The chip analyst said manufacturer Quanta had laid off a "significant number" of workers from a factory that produces RIM's PlayBook."

RIM dismissed reports that its PlayBook was in danger of extinction as "pure fiction." RIM spokeswoman Jamie Ernst said, "RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market."

But NPD Group DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, who closely watches the tablet market, said his firm sees a production gap as well. "Our supply chain research indicates they (Quanta) don't have production plans for PlayBooks beyond this year." Article

No surprise its a flop. Can't read email on it unless its connected to a Blackberry. Few apps. The QNX operating system is a good one but the Playbook is skimpy on features and services, not to mention RIM was charging $500 for the 16 gb model (Just got my hands on an HP Touchpad, now that is something well designed.). The Wall Street Journal published a front-page story Friday on the problems at RIM. Excellent article and paints a picture of two leaders who have been focused on hardware for years and are somewhat clueless about what to do as the market passes by RIM. The newspaper reported:

"There's an internal war going on around the marketing message. Even the guys at the top don't agree," one executive close to the company said at the time...

The marketing muddle shows one of the biggest problems facing RIM: In a market increasingly driven by the wishes of the retail consumer, its executives have struggled to wean the company from its heavy corporate focus.

For years, Mr. Lazaridis resisted the consumer trend taking hold in the smartphone market, which the company's BlackBerry long dominated, according to people close to the company. He and his co-chief executive, Jim Balsillie, then fumbled attempts to catch up.

RIM's foray into a new market, tablet computers, has been disappointing. It shipped just 200,000 PlayBooks in the three months ended in August. That was less than half the number shipped in the preceding quarter and a small fraction of the 9.3 million iPads Apple Inc. shipped in the three months ended in June....

RIM remains profitable and its BlackBerrys are still wildly popular in many countries, from the U.K. to Indonesia. Financially, the company is in good shape, with no debt and a comfortable cash stockpile. Mr. Lazaridis has said RIM is finally rolling out BlackBerrys that can vie with rivals in the "features and performance arms race."

Many industry watchers say RIM's high-powered PlayBook tablet could give the Apple iPad a run for its money once it gets enough applications and services to run on it....." Article

The story goes into more detail how RIM could not decide who the market for the Playbook up until its launch. Several marketing firms were hired and fired. The company bounced from marketing idea to marketing idea as it could not figure out what it should be and what it should do.

Question is where will the Playbook rank in the history of corporate flops.