Research In Motion (RIM), the creators of the BlackBerry, has announced it is to cut around 2,000 jobs, reportsReuters. This cut represents a little more than 10% of the Canadian company’s workforce, with some expected at its HQ in Ontario too. RIM also has offices in Texas, USA, and London, UK. It’s not clear yet where the cuts are likely to take place. Rumorsof staff cuts first began over a month ago, and with talks of a potential takeover also doing the rounds, the company’s shares jumped by 10% in June....

Those of you that have been waiting for RIM to bring its BlackBerry PlayBook to UK shores will have little less than a month to wait after bothCarphone WarehouseandBest Buy, official stockists of the device, announced both the launch date and pricing of the enterprise-ready device. The retailers have put live their pre-order pages for the PlayBook, offering the tablet device from a starting price of £399 for the 16GB model, £479 for the 32GB model and the 64GB model coming in at £559....

With shipments already much lower than RIM’s forecasts, Quanta Computer – manufacturer of the company’s BlackBerry PlayBook – has reportedly been forced to slash its production output in Northern Taiwan due to a rapid reduction in orders, offering preferential compensation to lay off around 1,000 of its workers,Digitimes reveals. According to reports, RIM asked Quanta to shift production of its PlayBook to Taiwan, fearing an increase in imitation PlayBook tablets in the Chinese market....

RIM has officiallyconfirmeda few more details for its BlackBerry Playbook tablet, including the first official price information. While there’s still no official release date for the device, it will be available at 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada and the US Best Buy website already has the 16GB base model up forpre-orderat 499 USD. Meanwhile, Best Buy’s Canadian site is pricing three different models as follows: 16GB for 499....

Sources have toldBoyGeniusReportthat RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook is due to hit stores on April 10, falling just outside the first-quarter launchRIM statedwhen it first announced the tablet device last year. The PlayBook’s QNX operating system is expected to made a Gold Master release on March 31st, giving RIM four weeks to fine-tune, optimise and incorporate new features before the tablet is released. However, this could mean that when consumers turn on the device for the first time, they could be prompted to install a newer version of the operating system, updating the PlayBook to a newer version of the OS....