Research In Motion (creator of BlackBerry devices) has been tanking for quite some time. Now, that time is up.

Matt Alexander, writing for one37, in his piece entitled “That’s Enough, RIM”:

The Playbook is dead.

It’s taken a while for you to realize that, and I’m not convinced you’re fully aware, but you should really come to acknowledge it, RIM.

Bargain hunters are not going to pick up a Playbook and say, “Wow! I can’t believe everyone spoke so negatively about this!” They’re going to say, “Well it looks a lot like a Kindle Fire, but it has none of the functionality.” Considering the Kindle Fire came so long after the Playbook, but is already becoming such a household name, that’s just embarrassing.

Stop pushing a dead product. Cut your losses and leave it be.

Jim Dalrymple, writing for The Loop and commenting on Matt’s piece:

It seems to me the problems with RIM come from the top and until the co-CEOs are replaced, the company doesn’t stand a chance of making a comeback.

Further reading…

• What’s really wrong with BlackBerry (and what to do about it) by Michael Mace
• BlackBerry vs. iPhone by John Gruber