Update: Here’s a statement from RIM!
“RIM doesn’t typically comment on rumors, but any suggestion that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued is pure fiction. RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market.”
John Vinh, an analyst at Collins Stewart, claims that Quanta isn’t just ramping down BlackBerry PlayBook production – they’re halting it altogether, and RIM has canceled development work on future tablets (like the bigger one alluded to by RIM’s co-CEO). It’s worth noting that nobody at Collins Stewart, even Vinh, formally covers RIM, so take his statement with a grain of salt. He normally covers chip from Cypress Semiconductor, who’s involved with PlayBook production. If true, it would be safe to assume that RIM is exiting the world of tablets for the foreseeable future, an area that some would say they shouldn’t have been involved with in the first place.
Regardless of what happens on the hardware front, RIM is set to show off upgrades to the PlayBook’s QNX-based operating system, as well as what QNX will look like on a smartphone. The PlayBook is undergoing some price cuts, indicating that the tablet isn’t moving quite as fast as it should be, but to be honest, it’s always been hard to see the PlayBook as anything more than a test bed for RIM’s new OS. The real test will be how well it transitions to smartphones. Anyone taking bets?
[via Barron’s]