RIM's giving away PlayBooks to enterprise customers, might start begging soon!

It slashed prices, promised the moon on a stick for next year's OS upgrade and now Research in Motion has resorted to just giving the beleaguered BlackBerry PlayBook away. Purchase a copy of BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5 between now and the end of the year and you'll bag a free 16GB tablet. The offer is open to everyone in the United States and Canada -- except Quebec -- who want the only tablet that's packing the full BlackBerry experience (sans email, messaging, calendar...).

Nokia Siemens Networks To Cut 17,000 Jobs

Image via Wikipedia

Nokia Siemens Networks would like you to know that it “puts mobile broadband and services at the heart of its strategy”, and to demonstrate this they plan to fire roughly 17,000 people worldwide before the end of 2013 as part of ‘an extensive global restructuring program’. Says Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks:

"We believe that the future of our industry is in mobile broadband and services – and we aim to be an undisputed leader in these areas. At the same time, we need to take the necessary steps to maintain long term competitiveness and improve profitability in a challenging telecommunications market."

In other words, Nokia Siemens Network is apparently too much of a dog to be interesting to potential buyers. Nokia and Siemens have been trying to sell their network equipment joint venture, which was originally formed in 2007, for some time now (it sold a piece a few weeks ago).

Vodafone ups guidance and dividend, as H1 profit falls

Image via WikipediaVodafone Group adjusted its guidance for the current financial year upward, as its net profit for the first half shrank.

The company now expects its full-year adjusted operating profit to be in the £11.4 billion–£11.8 billion range, compared with a previously issued forecast of £11 billion–£11.8 billion. Adjusted operating profit for the first half was £6 billion, up 4.4 percent on an organic basis.

It has also increased its interim dividend by 7 percent – in line with its per-share growth target of at least 7 percent per annum until March 2013. It is also set to pay a special dividend following the receipt of a payment from Verizon Wireless.

Vodafone announced a net profit for the six months to 30 September 2011 of £6.64 billion, down 11.5 percent from £7.5 billion, on revenue of £23.52 billion, up 4.1 percent from £22.6 billion. On an operating level, profit was £9 billion, up 72.6 percent from £5.21 billion.