RIM BlackBerry PlayBook $200 Cheaper Thanks to Amazon Kindle Fire

With the Kindle Fire making a splash in the tech world, other tablets are being drowned out -- and the first casualty is Research in Motion's PlayBook, which is losing $200 on its price tag.

The $200 Kindle Fire has turned up the heat on the ailing tablet, as sales have been sluggish since the product was released in mid-April. The company reports it has only shipped 200,000 units of the product in the most recent quarter, down from 500,00 in the previous quarter.

The original pricing for the PlayBook was $500 for its 16GB model, $400 for a 32GB model, $700 for the 64GB version. Prices are a bit inconsistent on the Web, with all versions now $200 cheaper on the Best Buy Web site, and $100 off on Office Depot's online store.

The price drop is just the latest bad news for the company, as two more executives leave the company's board room. Rumors have been flying around the web that RIM was looking to leave the tablet market.

We believe RIM has stopped production of its PlayBook and is actively considering exiting the tablet market, Collins Stewart semiconductor analyst John Vihn wrote in a note to Reuters.

But RIM spokeswoman Marisa Conway said that the rumors were pure fiction.

RIM remains highly committed to the tablet market and the future of QNX in its platform, Conway said in an email to Reuters.

Shares of the company were down 5 percent during midday trading Thursday.

The iPad still dominates the tablet world as tech research company Gartner estimates 73.4 percent of the market is captured by Apple. Gartner also predicts the tablets to be the fast growing mobile device market, with 320 million units sold by the end of 2015.