Blackberry Playbook 4G Release Date

Blackberry Playbook 4G Release Date - U.S. telco attributes decision to lack of demand from business customers.

Sprint Nextel Corp. has abandoned plans to sell a version of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that runs on its high-speed network, citing a lack of demand from business customers.

The decision is a setback to Research In Motion Ltd. and comes at a difficult time for the company, which has seen its stock price tumble nearly 60% this year as sales of its signature phones have been losing ground to competitors.

Sprint's reversal means the device hasn't yet found any support from the three largest U.S. wireless carriers, which includes AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless. Without their backing, RIM will have to bear the burden of sales and marketing support for the device, as well as application development.

Click here to find out more!Sprint had said in January it would sell a version of the device as soon as this summer that would run on its fourth-generation network. The carrier said this week that those plans had been halted because the market for tablets has became too crowded.

"It's an interesting concept, it just hasn't caught on with business customers as much as they would like," said Paget Alves, president of Sprint's business markets group."There are so many tablets in the market, it creates confusion for the average customer."

A Sprint spokeswoman added that the decision "has no impact on our relationship with RIM." The Overland Park, Kan., company noted that competing tablets, such as the Xoom from Motorola Mobility Holding Inc. and the Evo View from HTC Corp., had increased competition in the space.

RIM said in a statement Friday that it was focusing its development efforts on the 4G technology known as long-term evolution, favored by AT&T and Verizon Wireless."Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already under way," the company said, adding that it planned to have U.S. and international carriers test it in the fall.

RIM shares rose 1.6% Friday to $24.56, and Sprint advanced 2.6% to $3.20.

RIM co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis said as recently as June that the company would offer a version of the PlayBook this summer enabled for the 4G WiMax network Sprint uses through partner Clearwire Corp.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company launched the PlayBook in April with the aim of luring new customers as sales of BlackBerry smartphones grew more slowly. Since then, RIM has had to contend with tepid reviews, a small recall and an inability for it to connect to some email accounts.

RIM reported it shipped 500,000 Wi-Fi-only PlayBooks in its fiscal 2012 first quarter in North America. By contrast, Apple said it sold 9.3 million iPads in the June-ended quarter, and Motorola recorded 440,000 deliveries of its Xoom tablet.

The Wi-Fi-only version of the Playbook is available through Sprint, Best Buy Co., RadioShack Corp. and Office Depot Inc. RIM also sells the tablet in Australia, Germany and Indonesia, among other countries.

Click here to find out more!Verizon Wireless, which is co-owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, is still evaluating the PlayBook and hasn't determined if it will sell it through its network, a spokeswoman said. An AT&T spokesman said the carrier still plans to offer the device on its network but hasn't yet set a date for doing so.

Rival device-makers have had little success so far in catching up to Apple after its launch of the iPad in April 2010. Estimates vary, but analysts suggest Apple has two-thirds of the market, if not more. In an attempt to close the gap, Hewlett-Packard Co. this week made permanent a $100 price cut, to $399, for its least-expensive TouchPad tablets.

Demand for tablets is seen rising. Research firm IDC in July boosted its worldwide tablet computer shipments forecast to 53.5 million this year, from a previous 50.4 million estimate, even as deliveries of the devices dropped 28% in this year's first three months.
Sources : http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=467011&G=5&C=1&page=1