Research in Motion today confirmed that it will no longer produce the 16GB version of its troubled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
The 16GB PlayBook, however, will still be available in stores while supplies last.
"We continue to remain committed to the tablet space and the 32GB and 64GB models of the BlackBerry PlayBook continue to be available from our distributors and retailers around the world," RIM said in a statement.
The announcement comes six months after RIM said it would take a $485 million hit related to lackluster sales of the PlayBook. At the time, RIM said the pre-tax provision was necessary because the company was sitting on a huge PlayBook inventory that it could only clear out by drastically slashing prices—in some cases from $500 to $199.
RIM announced the PlayBook in Sept. 2010. The 7-inch tablet included a 1024-by-600 multitouch capacitive display, designed around a dual-core, 1-GHz Cortex A9 microprocessor backed by a full gigabyte of RAM. The tablet ran QNX's mobile operating system, as well as HTML5 and Flash, with native hardware support to accelerate the apps further.
The PlayBook hit the market in April 2011, but by October, RIM said it would delay the launch of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until February 2012. Earlier this year, RIM said it would make its upcoming BB10 operating system available for its PlayBook tablet, but not right away.
The 16GB PlayBook is still listed on blackberry.com for $199. The 32GB will set you back $249, while the 64GB version is $299. That's a far cry from the original pricing of $499, $599, and $699, respectively.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the BlackBerry PlayBook and the slideshow below.