BlackBerry PlayBook Off to a Fast Start

Posted 04/22/2011 at 6:14am | by Paul Lilly

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Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook has been the recipient of some mixed reviews, including a fair number of negative write-ups slamming the slate for its lack of native email and contacts support (we'll post our own evaluation soon; in the meantime, be sure to check out our first impressions and photo gallery here). Despite the lukewarm reception, BlackBerry PlayBook sales have so far exceeded analysts' expectations.

In a note to investors, analyst Mike Abramsky this week stated that RIM may have moved 50,000 PlayBook tablets on launch day, which includes pre-order sales, according to Boy Genius Report. Abramsky arrived at that figure by tasking his team with calling up 70 different Best Buy, Staples, and RadioShack locations to find out about sales performance on launch day.

Like the reviews, sales results were mixed. Some stores noted little activity, while others (11 percent of those polled) sold out of the device. This was supplemented with Best Buy's online inventory tool, which Abramsky and his team used to check 180 other retail stores. Of those, they found that the 16GB version was unavailable at 13 percent of the stores, the 32GB model unavailable at 87 percent, and the 64GB model unavailable at 91 percent.

Not bad for a slate that's getting slammed by some of the media.

Image Credit: RIM