Blackberry Playbook For £127.00

The struggling maker of the BlackBerry phones has said it is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets, since it has to sell them at a deep discount.

Research In Motion (RIM) said it’s taking a pre-tax charge of 485 million US dollars (£309 million) in the just-ended quarter to account for the declining value of the tablets. US customers now pay 200 dollars (£127) for the model which was originally priced at 500 dollars (£318).

A year ago, co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said pent-up interest in the PlayBook was “really overwhelming”. Companies are looking for an equivalent of the iPad of corporate use, he said.

In March, Mr Balsillie said: “The launch of the PlayBook may well be the most significant development for RIM since the launch of the of the first BlackBerry device back in 1999.”

But when the tablet went on sale in April, reviewers criticised the lack of email software, saying the device seemed half-baked. RIM now promises updated software in February.

RIM said it shipped 150,000 PlayBooks to stores and distributors in the fiscal third quarter, which ended November 26. “Sell-through”, or the number actually bought by users, was slightly higher, reflecting sales of tablets shipped earlier. It shipped 500,000 in the first quarter and 200,000 in the second.

The Canadian company also said it sold 14.1 million BlackBerrys in the third quarter, slightly better than analysts expected. It then expects sales to fall slightly in the current quarter, roughly in line with analysts’ expectations.

The company provided preliminary revenue and profit figures for the third quarter that were lower than it previously projected, but not a surprise to analysts.

RIM said it expects earnings at the “low to mid point” of the 1.20 to 1.40 dollars per share it previously forecast. Analysts polled by FactSet have on average been expecting 1.18 dollars per share.

The company expects revenue slightly the below the 5.3 billion dollars (£3.4 billion) to 5.6 billion dollars (£3.6 billion) in its previous forecast. Analysts had been expecting 5.27 billion dollars, on average.

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