RIM Ships 500,000 Blackberry Playbooks in Q1, Announces Earnings

Research in Motion, the company behind various Blackberry gadgets has announced 500,000 units of their Blackberry Playbooks were sold in Q1, the company also claims $4.9 billion in revenue with $695 million in profit ($1.33 per share).

RIM officials also announced that 13.2 million units shipped in general, a number that spans all of mobile device lines, although exact sales figures have not been released.

While the number of units moved met analyst expectations, overall sales figures and profits for the company failed to meet expectations from investors and the company says that Q2 is also expected to witness slower than forecasted numbers which will force the company to layoff part of their employee base.

Along with the company’s lower than expected earnings RIM announced today that Dan Morrison, one of the company’s three chief operating officers is taking a medical leave of absence for undisclosed reasons. Meanwhile some shareholders are demanding that the roles of CEO and Chairman be divided into two separate roles with an outsider being placed in the Chairman role.