Will the Playbook save Research In Motion in 2011?
2011 will be tough competition in the mobile market—an area where Research in Motion relies upon heavily.
The venerable Blackberry maker will have to stand tall against stiffening competition from Apple and Android-running OEMs. But the Canadian tech titan has a formidable arsenal to fight with.
Launching its enterprise-savvy, majorly capable Playbook tablet in early 2011, RIM hopes to snag a sizeable portion of 2011's gonna-be-hot tablet market share. And the software its using for the tablet may appear on new Blackberry smartphones by the end of 2011, following RIM's strategic acquisitions of QNX and Astonishing Tribe. Quoth The Globe and Mail:
Research In Motion expects its PlayBook tablet and new BlackBerry smartphones to power growth in 2011 as it continues to compete against rival Apple and Android products for market dominance.
RIM will launch the PlayBook tablet to compete against the iPad and other computer tablets, with analysts watching to see how the BlackBerry maker fares in the competitive North American market.
“I think we are laying in the pieces here to sustain really exciting growth for a long, long, long time,” co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a conference call earlier this week. The company reported strong quarterly results that exceeded expectations. “I feel great about where we are sitting for 2011 with the carriers and in North America." And, he added, "We're committed to ensuring the BlackBerry PlayBook is enterprise-ready for launch." It will have the same level of security as a BlackBerry smartphone.
The PlayBook will have a new operating system based on technology from RIM's recent acquisition of QNX, a maker of a real-time operating systems used in vehicle navigation systems. That technology is also expected to work its way into new BlackBerry smartphones being introduced next year. He noted that RIM has made acquisitions this year such as QNX and interface designer The Astonishing Tribe to help work on new products.
But since much of the company's growth has come from international sales in recent quarters, analysts have wondered if RIM's best days are behind it.
“The PlayBook is expected to begin shipping . . . in the first quarter of 2011,” Jim said. The tablet will have WiFi only and be sold at retailers. Of the acquisitions and moving forward, Jim noted, “This is not a time to be penny-wise and pound foolish when you're really grabbing position in this rapidly expanding space because it's not just competition between players in the space — it's expanding to do things you normally didn't do in mobility.”
