RESEARCH IN Motion (RIM) has warned that it will fall short of its financial targets after taking a huge charge to write down inventories on its languishing PlayBook tablet, and its shares tumbled more than 9 per cent.
Aiming to drive up anaemic sales of the PlayBook, the BlackBerry maker last month began to offer the tablet computer at sharp markdowns, prompting it to book a $360 million (€269 million) after-tax inventory writedown.
RIM was late to the game with its PlayBook, introducing the tablet last April, long after Apple’s iPad had established an overwhelming dominance of the new segment.
Consumers however have remained wary.
RIM said it sold about 150,000 tablets in the third quarter, which ended on November 26th, down from 200,000 in the second quarter.
That is a tiny fraction of the 11 million iPads Apple sold in its latest quarter.
“RIM is continuing to suffer from its PlayBook endeavours,” said Geoff Blaber of CCS Insight.
RIM shares fell 9.7 per cent to close at $16.77 in New York yesterday. – (Reuters)
