Is BB PlayBook no more? One analyst appear to think so. According to a research note put out by John Vinh, Collins Stewart analyst, claimed the makers of BlackBerry, Research In Motion were calling a halt to Playbook, the 7 inch tablet which was released here in late June.
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The analyst claimed RIM’s supplier Quanta has ceased production of the device. “We believe RIM has stopped production of its PlayBook and is actively considering exiting the tablet market,” Vinh wrote.
“Our due diligence indicates that RIM has canceled development of additional tablet projects,”he added.
RIM said it shipped half a million of the tabs in the closing six weeks of its first quarter and 200,000 in Q2 this year, “which was lower than we had anticipated,”Jim Balsillie RIM Co-CEO told analysts this month.
However, RIM are denying the claims saying it “is highly committed to the tablet market” and insist the story was “pure fiction,” company spokeswoman Marisa Conway, said.
This isn’t he first bit of negative speculation PlayBook, on BlackBerry’s QNX platform, has been subject to.
In Australia, Playbook accounted for just 0.4% of all tabs bought here inQ2, although admittedly the device was just released in June leaving it little time to catch up with, rivals iPad 2, which accounted for 3 out of every 4 devices sold, although the popularity of the Android OS appears to be on the up, too.
“Australia and New Zealand media tablet market doubled in Q2 2011, driven by multiple launches of Android-based devices, and soon to be joined by other players globally such as the Amazon Kindle Fire,” IDC analysts said yesterday.
But Android could save the Playbook if a proposed application which would allow QNX OS run Google apps comes to pass.
Read Can Android Save BlackBerry PlayBook? Here
“RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform,” Conway added.
RIM recently posted profits drop of 59% earlier this month but are planning a makeover of newly released PlayBook, including “a major software upgrade for PlayBook, which will deliver some highly anticipated new capabilities and applications” which it hopes will “reinvigorate” sales, it said this month.
Read Green Invasion: Aussies Love Android Tabs Here
