RIM PlayBook is a surprise hit, outsells Motorola’s Xoom

The BlackBerry PlayBook by RIM has been performing extremely well by selling approximately 250,000 units during its first moth of sales, according to RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky.

That’s way ahead of Motorola’s flagship Xoom tablet, which took two months to sell 250,000 units. Of course, they’re both far behind Apple’s iPad 2. Apple’s been selling every unit it can manufacture.

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Abramsky said RIM could move 500,000 PlayBooks during its first fiscal quarter. If the pace remains the same, RIM will sell over 2 million units this year. That’s a little lower than RBC’s sales estimate of 3 million units this year.

The PlayBook is apparently a great device with a smooth user interface. The major weakness is the lack of apps — there are only around 3,000 made especially for the PlayBook. The iPad has tens of thousands of applications. However, the PlayBook is able to run a number of Android applications, which has probably helped to boost the sales of the device.

Even with support for Android apps, the PlayBook is a tablet for BlackBerry users. For example, the PlayBook doesn’t have an e-mail client or calendar unless you pair it with a BlackBerry via Bluetooth. That is certainly a downside if compared to the easy-to-use e-mail features of the iPad or tablets using the Android operating system.

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