BlackBerry PlayBook Q1 2011 Sales Estimates Cut To 450,000

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The BlackBerry PlayBook has been interesting to watch so far. It originally launched back on April 19th, and then just about a month later we saw sales estimates that suggested RIM had sold 250,000 units. Not to mention, some of the numbers that were mentioned for Q1 before the official launch were suggesting sales could hit as high as 1 million for the quarter.

Of course, then the bigger story hit back on May 20th, the one where we saw reports coming from a tipster at a big box retailer who suggested that not only were the sales bad, but the return rate was really high. And then, that was quickly defended by RIM who made it known that the report was “inconsistent” with what they were hearing. In fact, RIM stated that;

“The source of the reported comment is anonymous and unknown to RIM, but the comment is certainly inconsistent with the positive feedback we have received from our main retail partners.”

But all of that aside, it looks like at least one analyst, Scott Sutherland from Wedbush Securities has lowered his sales estimates, which now sit at 450,000. According to Sutherland, that estimate comes as a result of his “checks.” Furthermore, this lowering of sales caused him to lower his revenue estimate from $5.2 billion to $5.1 billion.

In addition, Sutherland stated that some of the lack of sales may be due to the lack of support for the bridge features by the carriers. Bottom line, there are lots of potential reasons and lots of estimates and guesses floating around right now. That being said, RIM did promise to “provide a business update” on the BlackBerry Playbook on June 16th.

In other words, it looks like we have a few weeks to wait (and most likely speculate) about how good or bad the PlayBook is selling. Me personally, the tablet feels great, but seems to be missing some key features at this point. That said, the hardware is nice so RIM could still make a nice comeback in terms of software and updates.