According to business reports, it’s been estimated that for every 1 PlayBook that is shipped, 19 iPads from Apple are sipped within the Q1 period. Analysts are guesstimating around 490,000 PlayBooks during the first full quarter of sales, and have cut estimates for full-year PlayBook shipments to an average of 2.2 million, says a Bloomberg survey of analysts
“RIM overplayed the PlayBook in terms of its sales and prospects,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. in New York. “What this really shows is that the company’s prospects will depend on the next generation of BlackBerrys.”
The company will ship about 1.5 million tablets this year, compared with 39.2 million for Apple and 7 million for Samsung, said Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Ltd. This thursday RIM is set to release its earnings report so it will be interesting to see if these predictions are correct. Certainly, the lack of native email, PIM and the promised Android player are factors to the PlayBook’s sale numbers. I don’t see the PlayBook disappearing soon but RIM really needs to fall through with their promises.