HP’s Touchpad might have flamed out on launch, but it may not be the only tablet in danger of doing so. Reports suggest RIM’s PlayBook tablet is not selling in anywhere near the numbers analysts had expected. DigiTimes reports (via AppleInsider) that Playbook manufacturer Quanta has cut back production lines for the tablet and may lay off 1,000 workers. In April, RIM forecast sales of 4-5 million PlayBooks in 2011, the sources noted. However, RIM shipped fewer than 800,000 units during the first half of 2011 and monthly shipments dropped to about 100,000 units in...

This isn't directly ebook related, but I think it's important and a major reason (which analysts have ignored) why the iPad is doing so well.  The title, above, is from an article in ReadWriteWeb by Sarah Perez: There's an interesting trend happening in mobile these days. Companies - major companies like Samsung, Motorola, Kyocera, RIM and Microsoft - are launching unfinished, unpolished products and then asking us, the consumers, to buy them based on their "potential." Despite the fact that the new BlackBerry tablet computer has no email client or wide selection of apps, or that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 can't...

Yesterday I mentioned an open letter from frustrated would-be PlayBook developer Jamie Murai concerning all the problems he encountered trying to register for and use the development tools for the Blackberry PlayBook tablet. He ended up throwing up his hands and giving up in disgust. Today, Tyler Lessard, the head of RIM’s BlackBerry Developer Relations and Developer Programs team responded on the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog. Jamie’s posting on Friday raised a number of challenges that he faced while getting started with development for the BlackBerry PlayBook and while registering to become a BlackBerry...

On TechCrunch, guest writer Jim Dalrymple from The Loop looks at why, a year on, Apple’s iPad still has no real competition and all the other hardware manufacturers are still scrambling to catch up. He points out that Apple has done such a good job making the tablet useful in people’s everyday lives that everybody else is still trying to be Apple rather than beat Apple. Every other tablet introduced thus far has looked remarkably similar to the iPad. Even the competitors who come the closest—HP and RIM—still haven’t done anything. And Apple is only a week...

mocoNews reports on more rumors and speculation surrounding RIM’s BlackBerry “BlackPad” tablet (which we’ve mentioned before here). If the speculation is right, the device could be unveiled as early as next week at a RIM developer conference. Rumor places the device at 7” in size, smaller than the current iPad but the same size as the Galaxy Tab (and the rumored 7” iPad Apple is supposedly developing). The device would have Bluetooth connectivity, but would require a BlackBerry smartphone to connect to 3G Internet. It would run an operating system from QNX, which is better known for making...

A number of sources, including Ars Technica and Bloomberg, report that Research In Motion is rumored to be turning to embedded software company QNX to provide the operating system for its new tablet, allegedly to be called the “BlackPad”. RIM actually bought QNX Software Systems from Harman International Industries in April for $200 million. QNX embedded software is used in a variety of devices, ranging from BMW and Porsche car audio systems to medical devices to nuclear power plants to the Crusher robot tank. It has also been released as a downloadable bootable floppy disk distribution, and has...

We reported in May on rumors of a possible Blackberry tablet device flying around. Lately, those rumors seem to have solidified. Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has acquired the domain name “blackpad.com” from the previous owner, who had owned it since 2002. CNet ties together some other reports, including a post from Bloomberg in which anonymous sources claim the device is going to be Blackberry’s crack at killing the iPad, having similar specs and pricing to the wifi-only version, and will launch by November. The tablet...

Our sister blog Gadgetell summarizes a Crackberry.com post about rumors of a Blackberry tablet that have been flying around. There really isn’t a lot of solid information, just speculation. It isn’t even clear whether such a device would run the same OS as Blackberry handhelds, or Android. As Gadgetell points out, RIM (Research In Motion, the makers of the Blackberry) started out with a business focus and has been aimed primarily at the enterprise ever since. Apple, on the other hand, has had to retrofit all the enterprise features that users have asked for—and even then they won’t...