Depends on pricing in a big way. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20031676-1.html The Motorola Xoom prices at $1,199 sould sell approximately 0 units. Also, early plans were that the Playbook will only have interweb access if tethered to a Blackberry, which would be ridiculously bad. I'll take the under.

 

Originally Posted by saxman

If that holds true, i agree that its a huge drawback. I thought it would be priced to compete with the Ipad and come wifi enabled with the tethering option. I'm not a techi obv - i think the appeal is mainly to business users but wondered what the consumer appeal might be.

One of the wireless providers up here just announced a plan for being able to share packages over a variety of wireless devices. I thought that my be targeted to the Playbook release but could be wrong.

I'm definitely a technology geek. I have been looking forward to the Xoom coming out for quite awhile. At that price, it can go fuck itself. Jesus, 1200? Honeycomb looks ridiculous, but sweet hell, what braaaaaak said. Are they trying to sell fucking zero units.

And when it comes to the playbook, I know nothing about it, pretty much. The ignorance is intentional. I had a Blackberry Curve for 4 years. Yes, color me crazy. I needed it for business, I thought. I have paid $30/mo for four years to access 5-10 MBs of data a month. Pathetic. Only, I had no idea how pathetic until recently.

I mean, look at the Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Can reach theoretical speeds of 40 mbps. Going unlimited on T-mobile is $40 more a month than a simply 200 MB plan. Versus what I was paying for BB service. I have been a supraprofitable customer for Blackberry, and I won't use them ever again on principle. They are just so fucking far behind, so I really don't care about the Playbook.

1200? I mean, if you has asked me to guess on a pricepoint, that would have been like my last guess. I mean, wow.

Yeah, I think you have that correct.

I think BBs are more secure than say, a Droid X, because of the enterprise setup. I have read articles where at say, ATT, there is a separate room in one of their main hubs, where the govt. essentially makes a carbon copy of all the data, and then sifts through it. That's ridiculous, and I have no reason to believe that wasn't true. I forget where the article was, or I'd link it.

I can understand the large business necessity. But, I don't think that is a large growth driver. I mean, the business enterprise market seems pretty mature. It seems like the growth drivers are in sectors they can't touch. I just don't see a Torch being able to compete with a Droid X or iPhone 4 in a satisfactory manner.

Just read an article a few moments ago about some analyst heavily recommendation calls ahead of the playbook announcement. I'm not so sure I'd do that. Well, maybe as a trader, in and out I would. But anything longer term, you wouldn't catch me dead with.

Rimms market is people who are already on bb and dont know better. And canadians. And china. And relics in business whose companies havent opened the enterprise doors to other devices yet.

Xoom reviews are insanely better than anything but costly. Not sure wtf they are attempting. They have high margins on these things already. Get in the fucking game with ipad users first.
I still think they sell plenty then cut the cost. They probably recall how apple users used to always pay a premium for a new product before ipad. Just testing the waters i guess. Its not like another tablet from someone else wont replace it tho.

Mostly overseas tho. They are losing ground here. China makes them look better than they are. Its smoke and mirrors.

Once you slip here its a tough road back unless you invent something new. Pretty sure they have higher fees here than china too. Their image is not creative to americans. They shouldve had a sleek droid x looking device years ago and they sat on their ass milking it. Tech doesnt reward that longterm imo.

 

Originally Posted by saxman

No argument - the iphone and droid bit them in the ass hard from retail standpoint. The playbook might be a little late in the game to save retail but it may secure their stake in the business world. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

i do not disagree with that but when you break down their profits they actually make much more in consumer revenues as a percentage now and based on their growth overall.

But they will do OK in sales probably and make more with bb consumers who crossover to home life with it. Hell thats how the bb did it before. Its always possible but....
The thing is i suspect the high margin shelf life wont be as long with all the competition. Everyone sells one. It will be a commodity like a flip phone eventually. How long is the question. They jack up smartphone prices as long as they can too but its slipping slowly.
Its one thing when youre the only guy with one but droid apps are available to alllll droid tablets. Hell, even the galaxy tablet got out dated already. (Oh anddddd lol netbooks.) Rimm doesnt have some draw as a multimedia powerhouse either.

God knows how often they will actually do updates or improvements. I doubt people have enough confidence there will always be a new one to upgrade to with anticipation. My mentality with rimm is like a commodore computer. Im waiting for the next step but not from commodore haha. I think apple has an edge in maintaining better margins too.

Who knows. Maybe china will buy a billion of them. People underestimated ipads worldwide reach. People saw where 3g was and not that wifi is everyyyywhere. I just think in amerrrrrrrica it might not he as popular as elsewhere. Its hard to put a dollar on that bet or guess until it happens.

Do they have a purely wifi version or just subscription? I havent checked yet. I dont get that with some companies.

bbm is the only brightspot to blackberry

RIM is pretty ruthless when it comes to business practises. They hire a lot of co-op university students who work for 4 months, then go back to school for 4 months, then work (somewhere else), then school etc.

Students in development will takes skills, techniques, ideas they learned in the workplace, then are back at school and do their own thing, ie create an app or something. RIM then sues the kid for stealing their ideas. I have heard that other employers are actually asking have you worked for RIM, in a bad sense, their 'knowledge' might lead to them getting sued by RIM.

Everything I've seen about pricing for the Xoom is around $800...