Are rumours about the PlayBook's poor battery life true? Not according to RIM

A Kaufman Bros analyst by the name of Shaw Wu recently claimed that Research in Motion's forthcoming tablet, the PlayBook, lasts just a "few hours" compared with the Galaxy Tab's six hour and the iPad's 10 hours of battery life.

But the Canadian tech titan contends this claim, which cites unnamed sources, and affirms that the tablet—to be launched early in 2011—stacks up well against Samsung and Apple tablets.

"Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented," RIM said statement emailed to Reuters. According to Reuters, RIM says that development of the battery is on schedule and its performance will be comparable to competitors.

Analysts forecast RIM will sell less than four million PlayBooks in its first year. Apple has sold more than seven million iPads since its launch in April, and it's expected to sell roughly 10 million in 2011.