The news just never seems to be good for RIM. Thursday, the Canadian company announced it sold just 200,000 PlayBook tablets during the last quarter. Today, an analyst predicts the iPhone 5 will “steamroll” RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 7 smartphones.
Just as RIM starts promoting its new line of handsets powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system, Apple is expected to steal the spotlight with the introduction of its iPhone 5, pushing the already heightened interest in the device “off the charts,” writes Ticonderoga Securities’ analyst Brian White. The fifth-generation iPhone is expected to be unveiled within weeks, sometime in October, according to multiple reports.
Thursday, RIM reported selling 10.6 million BlackBerry handsets during the previous quarter, company profits falling 47 percent compared to the previous year. White joined other experts predicting RIM’s PlayBook tablet could go the way of HP’s TouchPad, discounted and then withdrawn.
RIM’s PlayBook may be the “next casualty of iPad’s tablet dominance,” White writes. Thursday, RIM executives announced retailers have unsold PlayBooks sitting on shelves and discounts and rebates are likely to appear in order to move the units.
