Any issues only with pre-beta units

RIM has issued a statement in an attempt to stymie reports that its forthcoming flagship PlayBook tablet is facing possible delays due to issues with its battery. Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu made the claims and said that the issues revolved around RIM’s use of the QNX OS, which was not originally optimized for tablet devices. RIM’s statement refutes these claims and insists that any issues that might have been detected are only in non-optimized, pre-beta devices.

"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 company said. "RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life."

Based on RIM’s statement, the Blackberry Playbook can still be expected to ship by sometime between February and March.

By Electronista Staff