RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook appears to have found a following here in Canada, thanks in part to the fact that it now sells at a significant discount. According to a quarterly survey conducted by Solutions Research Group (SRG), the most popular tablet in Canada remains the Apple iPad but the PlayBook accounted for 19% of the Canadian tablet market in Q1 2012, up from 2% in Q2 2011 (based on a survey of 1000 people).
The spoils, 25% of the tablet market, is split among Android tablet manufacturers.
| Tablet brand | Q2 2011 | Q1 2012 |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 86% | 56% |
| RIM | 2% | 19% |
| Samsung | 4% | 8% |
| Acer | 1% | 6% |
| ASUS | 0% | 5% |
| Motorola | 2% | 2% |
| Lenovo | 0% | 1% |
| Others | 5% | 4% |
Much of RIM’s success can be attributed to the fact that the tablet now sells for as low as about CA$200 for the now discontinued 16GB version. The release of BlackBerry OS 2.0 also helped by delivering some of the functionality that the tablet really should have launched with.
RIM is expected to launch a 4G version of the PlayBook sometime in Q4 2012. A 10-inch PlayBook codenamed Blackforest could launch in Q3 2013 with BlackBerry 10 instead of the current BlackBerry Tablet OS.
Update: SRG has now published their report online.
Read more: SRG (Source: The Globe and Mail [Print edition only])
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