RIM PlayBook sells 50,000 on Day One; Amazon tablet (probably) imminent

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"Research in Motion’s (RIMM) new tablet, the Android app-compatible PlayBook, hit the streets this week. It also sold better on its first day of shelf life than many expected, moving 50,000 tabs on April 19.

Here’s a quote from MSNBC.com’s Gadgetbox on the subject from its story:

‘The launch appears to have been stronger than the launch of Motorola's Xoom [Android] Tablet, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, although it's too early to judge sustainability,’ said RBC Capital Markets' analyst Mike Abramsky in a note to clients.

Of course, the PlayBook’s numbers aren’t exactly comparable to what Apple’s iPad pulled down -- 300,000 sold on its first day in April 2010, 19.5 million iPads and iPad 2s sold to date -- but in the increasingly crowded tablet market, it’s not a bad showing, especially given the fact that RIM has been struggling to catch up with Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) of late. Abramsky told the Montreal Gazette that RIM is on track to ship 500,000 PlayBooks by the first quarter of 2012.

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RIM introduces BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Courtesy of CNET – BlackBerry maker opens its annual developer conference in San Francisco by introducing its PlayBook, which it calls the first professional tablet.

iPhone is No. 1 phone, while Android is No. 1 OS

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"The best-selling phone in America is the iPhone, according to two different reports. But the same research shows Android is the top-selling OS, and it continues unimpeded in its march to worldwide domination. Meanwhile, BlackBerry's Research In Motion is getting stepped on, and dumb phones — those not blessed with any of the so-called 'smart phone' OSes — may well be headed for extinction. The question is, will Android keep it together at the top, or spread itself too thin?

Selling the top phone — not just smart phone but phonephone — should be good news for Apple. But compared to the quarter that ended a year ago, Apple's market share declined by 21 percent against Android. RIM's share drop is a lot worse, though: It's down 53 percent compared to a year ago.

'Much of Android's quarterly share growth came at the expense of RIM, rather than Apple,' said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD, in a press release. 'The HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X and other new high-end Android devices have been gaining momentum at carriers that traditionally have been strong RIM distributors, and the recent introduction of the BlackBerry Torch has done little to stem the tide.'

With nobody excited about new BlackBerry products, the best thing RIM can do is lower prices on its older more venerated handsets. Its Curve series, the No. 2 selling phone in the U.S., is listed at several carriers for the low low price of ... free. At least, with a two-year contract.

The iPhone beat another free-ish phone, the LG Cosmos, a messaging phone. As the only non-'smart' phone in NPD's top 5, and one that only got there through heavy-duty subsidies, another message is clear: Dumb phones are dying. But that might just mean more Android-powered phones of modest IQ being handed out for free or next to nothing.

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SHOW #92 - NerdBoyTV: Blackberry with Luis Merlos

On this episode of NerdBoyTV (using Skype), Ryan Yee talks with Luis Merlos of BerryReview.com on how RIM will compete with the iPhone and Android smartphones in the consumer market soon with the Blackberry 9800.

Nokia swings for fences with N8 smartphone, revamped Symbian OS

READ Yahoo! News: "So, what do Nokia and RIM have in common? The two smartphone titans are both saddled with operating systems that look painfully behind the times compared with competitors such as the iPhone and the new Android-powered HTC Incredible, and both are looking to turn their respective tides this year: RIM with its just-unveiled BlackBerry 6.0 operating system, and Nokia with its new N8 handset, complete with a 12-megapixel camera and the redesigned Symbian^3 OS.

Long rumored but officially unveiled only Tuesday (the same day that RIM previewed its next-generation OS), the N8 (set for release next quarter for 370 euros, about $500) boasts a series of impressive hardware features, not the least of which being its Carl Zeiss optics-enhanced 12MP camera with auto-focus, Xenon flash, and 720p video capture.



The N8's 3.5-inch, 640-by-360-pixel display also represents a much-needed step up for Nokia in that it's a capacitive, rather than resistive, screen. Earlier Nokia touchscreen phones used resistive technology, which registers a tap when the user presses layers of plastic together — perfect for a stylus, not so great when it comes to fingers. Capacitive displays (like those used by the iPhone, WebOS, and Android phones) detect taps via the electrical charge from bare skin, like a fingertip, making for a much more responsive (and far less mushy) touch display.

The half-inch-thick, 4.8-ounce N8 also packs in features such as an FM transmitter (for broadcasting tunes over an FM car stereo) and tuner, HDMI video output, support for Dolby Digital Plus sound, and 16GB of onboard storage (plus a microSD memory slot), but the phone's main claim to fame also represents Nokia's shot at launching itself back into the touchscreen game: Symbian^3, the all-new version of Nokia's aging Symbian OS."

RIM Introduces Two New BlackBerry Phones

Research in Motion has announced two new BlackBerry devices today, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. The announcement comes a day before the company’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES), where it will show off further software and hardware developments. Both phones offer significant upgrades to their respective product lines.

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a CDMA device that appears to be a bit of a souped-up BlackBerry Tour in both appearance and features. However, the phone trades the scroll ball for an optical trackpad, more device memory (512MB as opposed to 256MB) and the addition of Wi-Fi support for 802.11b/g networks.

Check out this video for the BlackBerry Bold 9650:



The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is an update to the immensely popular BlackBerry Pearl series, which combines BlackBerry functionality with a more traditional candy bar design. The new phone adds speed, more device memory (256MB), 3G support, GPS and an optical trackpad. The phone includes support for Wi-Fi 802.11.b/g/n networks and has a higher resolution 360×400 screen. The Pearl has always been marketed as a starter BlackBerry, or a BlackBerry for the non-business user. This is in part because the smaller size compresses the QWERTY keypad.

The BlackBerry Pearl 3G will be available in two models with different key layouts. The BlackBerry Pearl 9100 has the traditional 14-key layout while the Pearl 9105 has an expanded 20-key layout for an enhanced QWERTY experience.