While U.S. demand for BlackBerry’s smart phones could be described as tepid at best, people in Indonesia were willing to riot over them. From TechCrunch:

A crowd of 3,000 people waited in line today in Jakarta, Indonesia for a new smartphone. In fact, the group got so out of control that riot police had to be brought in to calm the masses.

[…]

RIM may have bitten off more than it could chew this morning promising a 50 percent discount on the handset for the first 1,000 buyers. Turns out, about 3,000 people wanted to be one of those lucky thousand, and when the announcement came that the phone had sold out… Well, things got ugly. According to the Press Association, the masses were “rattling the gates” and later “went crazy” after hearing they would not only miss out on the discount, but the phone entirely.

While it’s great to see strong demand for a BlackBerry device, it’s unfortunate that the main message to come out of this event was civil unrest and violence.

From Electronista:

Best Buy raised questions on Thanksgiving weekend after it suddenly started cancelling Blackberry PlayBook orders. Shoppers have frequently reported orders being dropped, even if the order had already been charged and was virtually ready. Those on Best Buy’s forums have mentioned the retailer being “overextended,” while our own checks had one store say that “all” orders had been cancelled.

[…]

While it’s potentially to discourage rain checks, the cancelled orders come just as Best Buy also appears to have pulled listings for the PlayBook itself, leaving only accessories[…]

If Best Buy is truly “overextended” with sales requests, why would they remove the PlayBook from their listings instead of showing it out of stock? Considering the PlayBook’s lackluster sales—partly due to its limiting software—I wouldn’t be surprised to find Best Buy and other retailers cutting their ties to the fledgling tablet.