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" Research In Motion has said that sales of its Blackberry Playbook tablet device have been &amp;quot;well below expectations&amp;quot;, as the firm looks to cut the price to stimulate demand.  RIM said yesterday that it had shipped (not sold) only 200,000 Playbooks last quarter, down from 500,000 in the previous three months, reports The Wall Street Journal.  The poor impact with buyers helped leave RIM with $754 million (\u00A3458m) more in inventory on its hands than it held at the beginning of its fiscal year six months ago. There are fears that the Playbook could go the way of the HP TouchPad, which finally found a market after Hewlett Packard slashed the price down to just \u00A389. It should be noted that RIM&amp;#039;s inventory also reflects a new batch of Blackberrys, which the firm said are selling well, but shifting the Playbooks could require price cuts.  This is largely because the seven-inch tablet remains a tough sell for retailers at a basic price of $499, the same as Apple&amp;#039;s bigger iPad 2.  In an earnings call, RIM chief financial officer Brian Bidulka said: &amp;quot;In addition to the inventory on RIM&amp;#039;s balance sheet, there is inventory in the channel that we will work through with our partners to sell through over the coming months.&amp;quot; RIM co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis noted that PlayBook sales had been &amp;quot;well below expectations&amp;quot;, but said that the product remains in its early days. The company wasn&amp;#039;t specific about future prices for the PlayBook, but Lazaridis confirmed that RIM does plan promotions this autumn, both with retailers and consumers. Sales could be further boosted by a software upgrade later this year that will give the PlayBook a native email application, along with a promised &amp;quot;player&amp;quot; that will run Android applications. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/news/a340717/blackberry-admits-playbook-sales-below-expectations/>