And where does that news come from? From the press release of RIM themselves, for the Q3 earnings call this week. “There are no PlayBook revenues included in our Q4 guidance, and we expect the first revenue impact from PlayBook will be in RIM’s first quarter,” a RIM spokeswoman said, adding that the PlayBook is still slated to ship in the first quarter of the calendar year. The company expects the first revenue from the dual-core tablet to arrive in the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year. So the book must be readily available by then.

Well, this actually needs some explanation. You see, RIM’s first fiscal quarter doesn’t start till March, which happens to be when the first calendar quarter ends. Yes, RIM can certainly revise its guidance to shareholders and launch the BlackBerry PlayBook earlier or later if that’s what execs deem fit, but if both of RIM’s statements remain true, then March is when the PlayBook will ship.