There’s certainly some high expectations for our favorite Canadian smartphone manufacturer this year. Launching the BlackBerry PlayBook this quarter, RIM will be embarking on an interesting journey when it enters a space largely dominated by Android and iOS devices. According to Quanta Computer, the Taiwan-based company responsible for manufacturing the PlayBook, production levels are expected to reach one million units in Q1 2010. Should the Motorola XOOM be worried?
Compared to the Motorola XOOM and the other Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets on the horizon, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a very unique piece of hardware. Limited to multimedia and web browsing functions without the pairing of a BlackBerry smartphone, the device has uniquely identified itself in this world of tablets.
Earlier this week forecasts for Motorola XOOM shipments were said to be in the neighborhood of 700,000 to 800,000 units. If Quanta Computer is accurate in their production forecast, one million BlackBerry PlayBooks would be a very impressive feat. For now we know of at least two version of the PlayBook, a WiFi-only edition being released globally and a 4G version for Sprint in the US.
There’s certainly no shortage of BlackBerry users out there in the world who would largely benefit from the BlackBerry PlayBook, but we must ask — do you think the PlayBook will outsell the Motorola XOOM in 2011? It looks like we are in for a very interesting first half of 2011, let the tablet wars begin.
via Cellular-News
