Knock the PlayBook all you want, but by all accounts it appears to be doing what Motorola Inc.’s Xoom did in its first two months of availability, according to RBC Capital Markets.
RBC’s general manager Mike Abramsky has estimated the number of Research In Motion Ltd.’s PlayBooks sold to date at 250,000 since launch on April 19th. The Xoom took two months to get to that same figure.
Of course, it’s not quite approaching RBC’s previous forecasts of selling four million units in 2011 (unless something quite drastic happens over the next six months), nor indeed six million units in the first 12 months of availability, but it’s a solid enough start.
Abramsky has now adjusted RBC and investors’ expectations to a rather more conservative 500,000 units for the PlayBook’s first quarter.
While this may be somewhat promising for RIM’s prospects, Abramsky’s projected 9% shipment decline in BlackBerry smartphones is less so. The analyst is forecasting 13.5 million units to ship, which is in line with guidance figures.
