Verizon Evaluating Whether to Distribute RIM’s PlayBook
April 20, 2011, 5:28 PM EDTBy Amy Thomson and Hugo Miller
(Updates with RIM tablet plans in third paragraph.)
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, said it is still evaluating whether to offer Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Playbook tablet computer to its customers.
Brenda Raney, a spokeswoman for Verizon, declined to say when the carrier might make a decision. On March 22, RIM said in a release that Verizon was one of the carriers expected to offer the device, along with AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp.
The PlayBook went on sale yesterday in about 20,000 stores in Canada and the U.S. including Best Buy Co. and Staples Inc. outlets. The initial version of the tablet is Wi-Fi only, which doesn’t offer the potential for carriers to make money selling contracts for the device.
RIM said in January that Sprint planned to offer a 4G version of the device this summer. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in February that it would introduce models of the PlayBook based on LTE, or long-term evolution, and HSPA+ technology used by Verizon and AT&T.
Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for RIM, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
RIM rose $1.24, or 2.3 percent, to $54.46 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock market trading. Verizon Communications Inc., which co-owns the wireless company with Vodafone Group Plc, climbed 55 cents to $37.79.
--Editors: Peter Elstrom, Donna Alvarado
To contact the reporters on this story: Amy Thomson in New York at athomson6@bloomberg.net Hugo Miller in Toronto at hugomiller@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
