Yesterday we received the bad news that Sprint has dropped out of the 4G BlackBerry PlayBook completely.  They went on talking about how it’s an “interesting concept” but it hasn’t caught on with business customers as they expected.  I guess they learned first hand from having the WiFi PlayBook in stores.  Any way, RIM came out with an official statement on the 4G PlayBook:

RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE. We remain excited and committed to delivering innovative and powerful 4G tablets to the US market together with our carrier partners. Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already underway and we plan to enter labs for network certifications in the US and other international markets this fall.

So they are completely focusing on an LTE PlayBook rather than WiMax.  With today’s technology and the direction towards LTE that carriers are going towards, it’s the right way to go.  RIM originally promised the 4G PlayBook to hit the streets this fall, but now that deadline promises the 4G PlayBook to enter labs at that time.

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