WATERLOO – A write down on its Playbook tablet in combination with October’s global service outage have hit Research In Motion hard, and the BlackBerry maker said Friday that it will most likely miss its full-year earnings target.
RIM said that it will record a pre-tax provision in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of approximately US$485 million, $360 million after tax, related to its inventory valuation of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
After taking in to account a $50 million charge for its nearly three-day service outage, RIM predicted that adjusted revenue in its third quarter is expected to be slightly lower than its previously guided range of $5.3 – 5.6 billion.
After cutting the price of its PlayBook tablet, RIM said that it has sold more than 150,000 of the devices in the third quarter.
"RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook and believes the tablet market is still in its infancy”, said co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, in a statement. “Although a number of factors have led to the need for an inventory provision in the third quarter, we believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise."
RIM also said that it shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smart phones in the third quarter, but expects to sell fewer devices in its fourth quarter “due to several factors including lower than expected sell-through in the third quarter and RIM’s current view of fourth quarter demand.”
The company will report its third quarter results on December 15, 2011 after the close of the market.
