A RIM spokesperson has denied that the moribund BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will soon be discontinued.
The official statement was issued to BGR just hours after Collins Stewart analyst John Vinh claimed lackluster sales had put the hapless tablet on the chopping block.
“While Quanta last week acknowledged that it had laid off a significant number of production workers from a factory focused on producing the PlayBook, our research indicates that the ODM has essentially halted production of the tablet,” Vinh wrote.
“Additionally, our due diligence indicates that RIM has canceled development of additional tablet projects.”
It should be noted that RIM managed to ship only 500,000 PlayBook tablets during the slate’s launch quarter – along with 200,000 additional units in the first full quarter of availability.
Although a number of analysts have (understandable) predicted the PlayBook’s imminent demise, the RIM rep insisted the tablet will live to see another day.
“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.”
