BlackBerry PlayBook Sales Pace Beating Xoom

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The tech blog digerati will tell you that BlackBerry is a dead brand and that nobody is interested in them anymore – but don’t tell that to the BlackBerry PlayBook. One analyst is reporting that a respectable 45,000 units were shipped on release day, putting the BlackBerry tablet on track to best the sales of the Motorola Xoom, another top-notch non-iPad tablet that has allegedly been selling poorly.

Analyst Peter Misek at firm Jefferies & Co. wrote today that he estimates that 20,000 PlayBooks were sold today after conducting sell-through surveys at Best Buy and Staples stores. In addition to the estimated 25,000 pre-orders, that means that about 45,000 PlayBooks were sold on day-one. Misek estimates that most people went for the 32 and 64GB models, even though the 16GB model was at an attractive price-point when compared to the iPad 2 and Xoom. For reference, the iPad 2 sold an estimated 300,000 units on its first day, while the Xoom sold an estimated 10,000 units on its first day.

Even though Misek likes the PlayBook, the analyst writes that he can’t give up his iPad 2. He added that he sees the iPad 2 remaining dominant and holding a majority of the tablet market, despite the early success of the PlayBook.

This success for the PlayBook comes as carrier AT&T has been drawing heat from some BlackBerry fans. Being a BlackBerry product, the PlayBook can tether with a BlackBerry phone to port email and other connectivity to the tablet. Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are all providing these tethering for free, while AT&T is requiring BlackBerry users to pay for the $45/month tethering plan. Not exactly a popular move.

Have you tried the PlayBook yet? What do you think of it? Scroll down to the comments section and tell us what you think of the BB Tablet.