RIM dismisses claims of PlayBook battery weakness

TORONTO | Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:08am EST

TORONTO Dec 30 (Reuters) - Research In Motion (RIM.TO) defended its embryonic PlayBook tablet computer against charges its battery life is shorter than that of rivals already on the market, saying power management will be comparable.

Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu earlier this week cited unnamed sources saying the PlayBook's battery lasts "a few hours" compared with six hours for Samsung's (005930.KS) Galaxy Tab and 10 hours for Apple's (AAPL.O) iPad.

Wu said RIM may have been forced to delay the PlayBook's launch so it could re-engineer the product, unveiled in late September and due to be released early in 2011.

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM dismissed Wu's claims.

"Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented," the BlackBerry maker said in an emailed statement.

It said development of the the battery was on schedule and its performance would be comparable to competitors.

Analysts, on average, forecast RIM will sell fewer than 4 million PlayBooks in the 12 months after its launch.

Apple has sold more than 7 million iPads since launching the device in April and analysts expect as many as 6 million to have been sold in the December quarter. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; editing by Rob Wilson)

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Comments (1)
Viking50 wrote:
Another false rumor, the battery, about RIM. ‘RIM will sell fewer than 4 million PlayBooks’ — not a greatly positive statement. I will be thrilled as a shareholder if RIM sells 2.5 million. RIM is trading at 8-9x next years earnings — not counting PlayBook. RIM has a PEG of .48. I estimate the current fair market value of RIM is $75. I expect it will see $90 in 2011 — I hope $110. Recently I have decided that call options are the best way to play RIM in the short term. There seems to be a ‘game on’ to keep RIM’s price down with false stories and negative comments. This also keeps the call option short. The shorts — oddly — if you buy negativity — are moving away from RIM. There are not a lot of calls on RIM — but it is all about timing. February calls on RIM are interesting.

Dec 30, 2010 10:37am EST  --  Report as abuse
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