Research in Motion and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

It was an especially bad week in an especially bad year for Research in Motion. The battered company announced this morning that it has lost $485 million US from PlayBook price cuts (but hey, at least they’re selling), that BlackBerry shipments have been declining and that the company will probably not reach its projected earnings for the year. Plus, RIM’s security credentials were damaged on Wednesday when three hackers—neuralic, Xpvqs and, um, Chris Wade—claimed to have “jail-broken” the PlayBook, allowing them to run unauthorized programs and have full control over its hardware. And that same day, two RIM employees pleaded guilty to mischief charges. The pair got in a drunken dispute with attendants on an Air Canada flight and needed to be restrained. The plane, carrying 300 people en route to Beijing from Toronto, had to turn back and land in Vancouver to hand the troublemakers over to police. Their belligerence cost them $35,878 each and a suspension from RIM. Perhaps it’s best for them to take a vacation; we imagine things are a little tense at the office these days.