RIM Rumored To Have Halted Production On The BlackBerry PlayBook [Has The BlackBerry PlayBook Reached Its End Of Life? Latest Rumors Suggest The Answer Is Yes]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Thursday, 29. September 2011 under: Computers & Computing, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

We have been watching the price cuts on the BlackBerry PlayBook rather closely lately. They began in Canada and then made it down to the US by way of several retailers including Office Depot, Staples and most recently — Best Buy. But even as we watch the pricing drop with more and more retailers, RIM is claiming that they are nothing more than one part of planned promotions.

Just yesterday we mentioned the statement from RIM in regards to that subject. They had stated that the retail price had not been changed and perhaps more important, they stated that these price cuts are part of a promotion designed to “help to generate an increase in demand” in the lead up to the PlayBook OS 2.0 update.

And well, while we cannot say we do not believe the statement — we do remain skeptical. That being said, while this latest bit is still nothing more than rumor, it is a rumor which suggests that RIM has halted production. The details are coming by way of a report on Barron’s which is citing Collins Stewart analyst John Vihn. According to Vihn;

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. Additionally, our due diligence indicates that RIMM has canceled development of additional tablet projects.

With that, RIM has yet to respond to this latest and while we are secretly hoping that the rumors prove to be false, we are thinking that things are not looking all that good for the PlayBook. After all, regardless of whether or not RIM is actually stopping production, these continued rumors about them doing so cannot be good for sales because who wants to buy a discontinued tablet. Well, that is unless it becomes a $99 fire sale.

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