Research in Motion may be preparing to slash prices on its BlackBerry PlayBook in the near future: the 16GB model is being sold at half-price to employees of the cell carrier Rogers in Canada, according to Boy Genius Report. RIM acknowledged it would begin cutting prices during its earnings call yesterday, though specifics on deals for consumers have yet to be revealed.

The 7-inch PlayBook was not well-received upon its launch in April, when it was priced starting at $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only model. Since then, Sprint canceled plans to carry a 4G version of the PlayBook, and RIM announced during its earnings call Thursday that fewer than 200,000 units have shipped in the last three months—about the same as the HP TouchPad before its everything-must-go $99 sale.

RIM noted during the call that it plans to drop the price of PlayBook to motivate sales, and the cuts have already trickled out to employees of Rogers. The workers can get their hands on the 16GB model for CAN$249, up to the largest 64GB model for CAN$399.

The company hasn’t said for sure that those prices will cross over to consumers, and it's still expressing some confidence that the next version of the tablet’s QNX-based operating system will spur consumer interest (as might the inclusion of native e-mail and calendar apps). RIM plans to announce a trajectory for the PlayBook as well as QNX-based BlackBerry smartphones at DevCon in October. But we'd keep half an eye on the flash-sale sites, just in case there's another tablet mad dash.

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