The first day of sales for the BlackBerry PlayBook may have exceeded the expectation of analysts, says a new report from Boy Genius Report. The article based its assertion on a research note sent by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, whose team checked with 70 different retail outlets to inquire on its first-day sales figures. RBC also tapped into Best Buy's online inventory tool to check on stocks of the PlayBook at another 180 locations across major U.S. cities.

In a nutshell, Abramsky believes that the PlayBook may have outperformed first-day sales of the Motorola XOOM or even that of Samsung's Galaxy Tab. While the numbers are not indicative of eventual returns, it does provide a hint that RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) may have been correct when it adopted its strategy of targeting existing BlackBerry users first. The analyst further stated that he expects the PlayBook to ship 500,000 units in its first fiscal quarter ending in May. According to CNET, a 4G version of the PlayBook is expected to be available from Sprint (NYSE: S) this summer, while a HSPA+ version for AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile is also being planned.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Boy Genius Report
- check out this article at CNET News

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