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" Research In Motion has dismissed speculation that it is preparing to discontinue the struggling BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer.  RIM recently admitted that sales of the seven-inch screen PlayBook have been &amp;quot;well below expectations&amp;quot; since its launch in April. The firm shipped - not sold - only 200,000 PlayBooks last quarter, down from 500,000 in the previous three months. The PlayBook initially cost $499 (\u00A3319) for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB and $699 for the 64GB variant, but some US retailers are now selling it at $299, $399 and $499 respectively. The price cut has led to speculation that RIM is shifting its spare stock before shelving the product entirely.  However, a RIM spokeswoman told Reuters: &amp;quot;Rumors suggesting that the BlackBerry PlayBook is being discontinued are pure fiction. RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform.&amp;quot; QNX is the operation system used by BlackBerry for the PlayBook. The firm is thought to be preparing to use the OS to launch a new range of &amp;quot;superphones&amp;quot; next year.  John Vihn, a semiconductor analyst at Collins Stewart, claimed yesterday that RIM may have already stopped PlayBook production and cancelled its additional tablet projects. &amp;quot;We believe RIM has stopped production of its PlayBook and is actively considering exiting the tablet market,&amp;quot; he wrote in a note. He cited as evidence last week&amp;#039;s announcement that contract manufacturer Quanta Computer had cut jobs at a factory it uses to produce the PlayBook.  The shortcomings of the PlayBook came to the fore this week after Amazon launched its Kindle Fire tablet, which has broadly the same technical specifications as the BlackBerry device, but will cost just $199 and benefit from Amazon&amp;#039;s extensive content relationships. There have been 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. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/tablets/news/a343221/blackberry-playbook-axe-rumours-dismissed/>