Best Buy Explains PlayBook Order Cancellations

Following rumors this morning that Best Buy was dropping RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, the retailer has responded to CNET, confirming that this was not the case. The speculation began after there were several reports that Best Buy had canceled customer orders for the PlayBook and then completely yanked the listing from its online store.

Best Buy explains that it had to cancel orders and pull the listing simply because the PlayBook sold out rapidly during its Black Friday promotion. The company intends to continue stocking the PlayBook and will replenish stock soon. It had listed the PlayBook with a $300 discount, pricing it at $ 199.99 for the 16GB model and $299.99 for the 32GB model.

The PlayBook has faced many challenges since its launch with firmware issues, such as the lack of native email, calendar, and messenger apps, that have yet to be fixed. A major update was originally set for later this year that would address these issues and bring the promised Android app player, but the update has been pushed back to February. Despite all this, it seems that a $300 price drop was all that was needed to clear out PlayBook inventory.