RIM's PlayBook will take on Apple's iPad with a price under $500 - Page 2

That's what happens when evil parents lock out Engadget in parental controls...

But as long as they do not get any better than praising products nobody can buy and nobody has used... WTF?

Yeah, isn't it just great how competition has led to the shipping of most US manufacturing jobs overseas?

Don't have to take may word on screen size usability. Here's what Gizmodo just said about the Samsung Galaxy Tab's 7" screen: "Here's the thing about tablets: Size is everything. Size is the whole point."

http://gizmodo.com/5686161/samsung-g...le-train-wreck

I wouldn't call Fail immediately on the Playbook but RIM has to have flawless execution in the intro of the device.

No delays.

No glitches.

No "gates".

Flawless.

... and with a profit margin of well less than 20% you've got to wonder what the shareholders are feeling.

Maybe RIM should buy Adobe.

(PS - in the video I noticed that Lazaridis does what my Wife does if her iPad doesn't respond immediately... push harder ;-)

and why would I want one of these?

Whats the advantage over the iPad?

I'm sure all the forward thinking coming from RIM will convince me otherwise.

I'm not sure I agree. The iPod touch is MUCH smaller, and it works great. Many eReaders are that size, and people love them.


And WRT battery life, I think that cellphones are even smaller, but have acceptable batery life, so I'm not sure that "for this size" battery life will be unacceptable. The screen is what burns the battery.

3G? I think you are right. They want to position the product closely with any Blackberry anywhere, so they went with WIFI only. Will it support Wireless N? The iPad does, IIRC.

Agreed...RIM is in the business of going out of business. RIM is yesterday's technology. I know they have acquired a company to provide a new OS....but I don't think they have the nouse to implement it. Apple has set the mark so high and everyone is shooting for the current iPad, but Apple is 5 years ahead of everyone. Not just in the actual device but the Apple Ecosystem that RIM, MS, Sony, Google, HP, Dull still don't seem to get. Who wants a hodgepodge of devices.

I like my iPhone 4, my iMac, my AppleTV and my iPad...done! The other companies, RIM included, are providing a "fractured" user experience!



Best

If RIM targets rich web applications, they might stand a chance. Personally, my only issue with my iPad size is that I need to carry a man-purse for it. Hopefully some better portfolio designs will come out soon for it. A 7" improves that, but the usability impact is faiy dramatic for SOME applications.

Maybe RIM's biggest opportunity is in cutting the weight by 35%.

Ports and a file system would be nice on the iPad; have to VPN, ssh, zip, uuencode, and mail to get a file from server to non-VPN laptop. It is pretty silly...

Mike Lazaridis of RIM was on Canada's CTV morning show and was asked how they would win the war against Apple. 5 minute mark at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...791408/?page=2

Not sure if he answered the question. However, perception is reality and RIM will sell a lot, especially in the US, as for every Mac hater/PC lover their eyes will never be open enough to enjoy the iPad. And the converse is also true.

For RIM in particular, what is most likely to affect the war between the two will depend on RIM maintaining their relationships with enterprise. From what we are evidencing most recently, it is waning and that divide should grow even wider as more business apps and the ability of businesses to recognize their value and/or develop their own become available.

Remember, that the reception here when Apple launched the iPhone, i.e., the dismissive attitude towards Apple's non-tactile keyboard and even after their success, the continuing assault on the iPad. Now some chastize RIM for their 'poorly' functional touch screen.

Perhaps we should just relax and let the users decide which is best. Remember, Apple has a nearly 300 patents between the iPhone, iPad and iOS that are really going to make RIM's, Microsoft's and Nokia's work a lot harder to innovate, especially if Apple continues to win the battles.

Good luck. The only way the Playbook and Blackberry will continue to sell is if one is thrown in for free when buying the other. And that won't work very long.

Lazaridis: The Playbook and the Blackberry are "in-stink-tive" to use. The stink is built-in and inseparable from RIM products.

QNX 'Nix is no more a "proper" OS than iOS OS X 'Nix or Android Linux 'Nix!

For an interesting look at some of the drawbacks of 7" form factor see:

http://gizmodo.com/5686161/samsung-g...le-train-wreck

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"We think the current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be DOA dead on arrival," Jobs told reporters and analysts listening in on a conference call announcing Apple's fourth fiscal quarter financial results...

iPod Touch users might disagree with you.

I couldn't even finish reading what you wrote because you made a trumped up assertion that the Playbook offers a proper OS for the tablet. Where as the ipad doesn't?
How'd you come to that conclusion? And what is the proper OS for a tablet?
Understand this, RIM is chasing Apple's ipad because? Answer that! Why does RIM need a tablet?
They are just following the money.
Like the suckers who put goji berry in their fruit juice because some clown down the street put goji berry in his juice. And made a claim(LIE) that it'll make you live to be 500 years old.
It's called following the bouncing business model.

I watched it Onhka and he is giving the typical CEOspeak...I saw the sort of disbelief expression on the interviewer's face when he was talking about the consumer market in relation to Apple. But she didn't call him out on it!

I much prefer Stevo's direct approach! Thanks!

It may very well turn out that Apple will be more successful moving from consumer product(s) into enterprise...than MS, RIM, etc., find moving from enterprise into the consumer markets!

Mmmm.... maybe the appropriate name for these 7-inchers is Wedgies


Take your pick:








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In fact, the Touch is so small, you can fit it in a shirt pocket. Which is exactly the tradeoff that makes the size worth it. Anything much larger-- too big to put in a shirt pocket-- means you lose the big advantage of that size, and just get the disadvantages of not big enough.

If you're going to go bigger than a phone, you might as well keep going until you get some real usability, instead of hanging out in the uncanny valley of too big to pocket, too small to get much done. I would say 7" is almost exactly the perfect awkward size, giving you the worst of both worlds.

Business tablet. Ha ha! You won't find the high end programs for serious business running on that thing. They are chasing Apple's ipad which it not a replacement for a computer but RIM is trying to best the ipad, theoretically, by saying that the Playbook will be business-centric. OMFG! What a freaking fail.
Who is going to be designing real world business programs for the mythical Playbook that will perform like they do on a fully featured laptop? We ain't talking about a fart app. We are talking about business suites!!! It takes years to develop that sh**. Money to get started. Teams of people. Lots of ram and chip power. The Playbook isn't the tech you do that stuff on.
You use windows, macs and linux!
Good luck RIM. Or should I say R.I.P?

I'll take no3

Removed: duplicate

It should be called the Copybook

But seriously, not sure who'd buy one unless they were die hard Blackberry fans. Maybe those fake actors in those "Blackberry love" commercials?

I don't see anything remarkable in that video -- horizontal scrolling seems a bit laggy.

I have been using iOS 4.2 on our iPads for about 10 weeks -- works fast and easy.

On 7" tablet, typing in Portrait mode is marginally better than on an iPhone.

In Landscape mode on a 7" tablet you lose half the screen to the keyboard -- and the keyboard is still too small.

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Geez, you really try everything to twist reality?

Most everybody already has a smartphone and/or PMP or MID... It needs a valid reason to additionally buy a tablet. What a tablet can do is add real productivity, unachievable on a 3.5 or 4" device. You need additional space, a more usable on-screen keyboard, additional GUI elements, etc.
If you look at the better productivity apps on the iPad, like OmniGraffle, OmniFocus, some Timesheet programs, and the iWork apps... you find that up to 30% of the screen real estate is occupied with menu bars, rulers, navigational elements, etc. Now port this experience to a screen having less than 50% of the surface area and it will fail, as there are only two ways to achieve it: 1. Make everything smaller and lose usability (fingers are no stylus, you always hit a bigger area), or 2. keep controls usable and leave less display area for actual documents/content. People do not hold tablets as close to the face as they hold phones (just check out people in trains and subways reading on any smartphone, they almost crawl into the things), therefor everything must be bigger. Not every buyer is less than 20 years old and has 200% eyesight, so more dpi do not help. There a basically two approaches to on-screen keyboards: 1. design them for thumb typing, or 2. design them for regular typing. I can type regularly on an iPad (I wrote hundreds of pages on mine) because it is big enough to do that. 7" hits the sour spot, too big for thumb typing and too small for regular typing. An external keyboard is mandatory for a 7" tablet, it is optional for a 10" tablet (and before you ask: I have worked with the Galaxy Tab and can make that statement). If an external keyboard is mandatory, I can buy a netbook or small laptop and get more horsepower for the same money, or just buy an iPod touch and hold it closer.

7" devices are certainly capable for media consumption, especially for video, since most of them are 16:9, a ratio that makes zero sense for productivity apps, as nearly everything humans produce (documents, pictures) is more 4:3 or 3:2. Just, with pretty capable 7" media players widely available for less than $200, what is the point of paying $500 and more?

And that is what several people have pointed out correctly: What is the point of an enterprise company like RIM creating a device most suitable for media consumption? Calling them fanboys for asking a relevant and obvious question is not really helpful. Apple did research 7" devices and chose not to build them. Don't you think they would have wanted that money, if it made any sense?

A little difficult when your bread and butter is sitting across from you.

My coin is on Apple. Somehow having to give 2-4-1 just doesn't seem to be a good business model for me. But that is what RIM may have to do, especially if they can find a way to share the screen across two Playbooks in order to match the iPad.

Well, he (Steve-J) is a troll, formerly known as appl, formerly known as ... so that's pretty much what we expect from him.

The Playbook has little chance of dethroning the iPad.


They don't have the HW specs (9.7" screen) nor the SW ecosystem. HDMI ports and cameras are more CE type of features that are unlikely to hold sway with people looking at Tablets IMO.

iOS 4.2 is shipping soon which brings AirPrint & AirPlay along with multitasking and end to end encryption to the iPad. Any BB advantage for Enterprise evaporates.

I don't "cry" I do the only thing that can possibly make a difference: I vote with my wallet.

I find the iPhone screen too small.
I find the iPad too heavy to hold for long and way too big to go with me all the time.

Therefore I will not purchase either one.

The "iPad" was not targeted at IT of "serious" companies. "PLAYbook" is, silly as it may sound.

I agree that 7" is perfectly awkward, especially with the large bezels found on tablets and eReaders.

If there is ever going to be a successful mid-size product it will be in the 5-6" range.

Look at the iPod touch. Take the current bezel sizes and wrap them around a screen exactly 50% larger in both dimensions. The result is a device with a screen 2.25 times as big that still fits in almost any pant or jacket pocket and sits comfortably in the palm of your hand.

I feel the writer of the gizmodo review was a bit too reticent in his criticism

No doubt because BB feel they own that market already.

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The biggest advantage of a 7" tablet, IMO, is that it can fit in lab coats and cargo pants.

I don't know if that is significant enough to offset the disadvantages -- as shown in the gizmodo article.

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Dude, that's kinda harsh.

There were mp3 players around when the iPod came out, and there was a nascent smartphone market when the iPhone came out. But I can't think of any product that either of these were copied from.

Right. For all those hipster managers who "think outside the box!"

It appears as if the LG Prada emerged few months before the iPhone. But by then, after years of development the iPhone design and specs were cast in concrete -- no time to copy anyone!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada_(KE850)

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Er... Athletic coaches for the cargos! For the lab coats: doctors, nurses, scientists, pharmacists, technicians...

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One more time - it is not a PLAYbook, it is a Playbook, like sports teams use to hold their plays, their strategies and so forth. OTOH, in this day and age, simply repeating the same falsehood seems to work.

I have vague memories of that little device. Seems to have fallen by the wayside...

The answer is NO.