Bad news for the big man in red - if Santa left a tablet under your tree he probably paid too much, as a massive glut of fondlesome devices has seen prices tumbling. You can buy tablets for under £30, but for just over that (including shipping) you can get a 7” Quad Core device, and Amazon is now chock-a-block with cheap …

RIM's once little-loved BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has outsold the latest iPad in Blighty's IT distribution channel, according to an analyst. More than 802,000 touchscreen tablets were sold in November and December compared to nearly 118,000 units in the same period of 2011 - and Apple accounted for just a quarter of this …

Product Round-up Before you rush out and buy a device that the late Steve Jobs said wouldn’t, couldn’t and shouldn’t exist - well, kind of - you may care to consider some of the alternatives on offer, assuming that is you can’t quite make the nut and afford a full-size iPad. Until Windows RT fondleslabs percolate down to those of us empty of …

Good news for would-be tablet owners without a pile of cash to spend: prices have dived 13.6 per cent in the past year – if you don't count the iPad. Apple's tablet came down in price too, but only by 3.45 per cent. And that's because being cheap is the best way to get noticed for non-Apple tablets, says IMS market analyst …

In a bid to improve the flavour of its chunky 7in tablet and make it more tasty for punters, RIM has spiced up its PlayBook with a little 4G LTE sauce. Essentially an existing PlayBook but with added faster mobile broadband tech and a clocked-up processor, the "4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook" - to give it its full name - goes on …

RIM has reported disastrous quarterly results and is delaying the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system until next year. The company will also shed 5,000 staff. In its latest earnings call the company reported revenues fell 33 per cent to $2.8bn in the last quarter, leaving them down 43 per cent on this time last …

Ailing Canadian device maker Research In Motion (RIM) is killing off its entry-level BlackBerry PlayBook. In a mailed statement to The Channel, RIM confirmed it is halting the production line for the 16GB version. "The 16 GB PlayBook will continue to be available for distributors and retailers while quantities last," said RIM …

Investors were less than impressed with Research in Motion's demo of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and the developer tools to go with it, sending shares sliding by 5.76 per cent. New CEO Thorsten Heins pulled out the new gear at his first BlackBerry World keynote speech yesterday, giving folks a look at what the OS …

Don't think World+Dog is bonkers for tablets? Market watcher Gartner does. It reckons some 118.9m of the things will ship this year - almost twice the number shipped in 2011. No surprise for guessing Apple will lead the pack - and then some. iOS will outsell its closest competitor, Google's Android, right through 2016, Gartner …

Former co-CEO of RIM Jim Balsillie is to leave RIM's board of directors, along with two other senior executives, after the company reported a thumping $125m loss for the last quarter. "As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding …

Reeling Research in Motion has raised another red flag, postponing its annual investors' confab until an unspecified date later in the year. That presentation to investors is normally held at the BlackBerry World get-together, which is scheduled to be held this year from May 1 through 3 in Orlando, Florida. This year, it …

Canadian gadget emporium Future Shop sold more BlackBerry PlayBooks than iPads last week, indicating the end of Apple's dominance or at least lending some succour to RIM's investors. The retail chain, which has 145 branches across Canada, isn't saying how many of either tablet it has sold, but tweeted its congratulations to …

Reg Hardware Mobile Week The massive reductions RIM has made to the price of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet are no longer one-offs but appear to have become the norm. RIM's own online shop now lists the 16GB PlayBook at the "new low price" of $199 (£125) and, as Lilliputing notes, the site no longer refers to the reduction …

The updated OS pushed out to PlayBooks yesterday can turn a BlackBerry handset into a remote control for Windows 7, or even Android, thanks to the wonders of Bluetooth. The feature was spotted by the chaps over at the RIM-obsessed CrackBerry blog, who wasted no time demonstrating how a BlackBerry handset, prompted by linking …

Updated Owners of a BlackBerry PlayBook can now download version 2.0.0.7919, finally providing a native email client and some integrated social networking, but not a lot of either. This is the PlayBook OS which brings support for ported Android apps, and native email, along with better social integration and document management, but …

Research in Motion launched its refreshed tablet operating system today, with the BlackBerry PlayBook OS2 now available for download. The news is a relief for PlayBook owners who are finally privy to standard tablet functionality such as e-mail, calendar and contacts apps. RIM BlackBerry PlayBook The BlackBerry Bridge app …

Citing better application support, oilfield services giant Halliburton will be handing out iPhones in future - despite RIM's claims that its app developers have never had it so good. Halliburton is the latest in a long line of companies shifting away from the former default choice of RIM's BlackBerry infrastructure. For …

RIM is offering a free PlayBook tablet to developers who submit an Android application to RIM's App World before Valentine's Day, though the T&Cs have yet to be revealed. RIM isn't the first company to hand out hardware to promote software development – it's an established route to filling out an application portfolio – but …