Let’s be clear.
Research in Motion is not discontinuing its BlackBerry PlayBook or exiting the tablet computer market.
“Rumors suggesting that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued are pure fiction," RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway told Reuters in an emailed statement. “RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform."
The PlayBook runs the QNX operating system, the same platform that RIM is incorporating in a new line of smartphones.
Canada-based RIM issued the statement in response to remarks by a Collins Stewart analyst indicating that the company may have stopped production of the PlayBook and had nixed development of additional tablet projects, as reported by Barron’s. The analyst’s comments were issued after a report in DigiTimes surfaced this month that Quanta Computer – the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world – had cut back its production lines for the PlayBook at its Taiwan factory due to a significant drop in orders.
RIM had been hoping that its professional-grade PlayBook would help revive its once-venerated reputation, but sales have been disappointing. In its 2012 second fiscal quarter ending Aug. 27, 2011, the company shipped roughly 200,000 devices, down from 500,000 units in the previous quarter.
By comparison, in Apple’s most recent quarter ending June 25, 2011, the consumer electronics juggernaut sold 9.25 million iPads. Research giant Gartner says the iPad will account for nearly three-quarters (73.4 percent) of tablet sales worldwide in 2011.
