Why would someone buy a Blackpad for the same price as an iPad when the Apple app store is so gigantic with a hundred thousand apps ready to go? Are RIM customers that loyal to a shrinking company? I'm all for competition but having the same type of device with similar features for the same price but with less capability out of the box won't work well. If it were priced $150 to $200 less then it would have a chance to do well.
In all fairness, the product hasn't been released or even spec-ed yet. How can you say no one wants to buy it when you don't even know what it is?
There are several ways which the BlackPad could succeed over the iPad, it's not like the iPad has all the bases covered. For starters, the most likely angle is content creation. The iPad sucks rather badly at any uses that aren't basically "passive" uses. A BlackPad that allowed for better typing or had a decent stylus would have a better feature set than the iPad right out of the gate.
Personally, I have almost zero confidence in BlackBerry or RIM based on how clueless they have been so far in responding to the iPhone, but it's always possible they will come up with something.
or the Juice ( the result of touching a blackberry )
I'm joking of course, but do you realize that real marketing people sit around and have conversations like this all day long?
Quote:
Originally Posted by neostryder
That's an even worse name than iPad.
I don't get these "bad name" comments.
Black is the first part of their name and a word that's synonymous with "cool." The best product in the category is called "iPad." Based on that, "BlackPad" seems kind of obvious. I don't see what could possibly be wrong with it. The closest alternative seems to be "PadBerry" (awful!), or "BlackSlate" or BlackTablet" (both are cumbersome at best).
I thought the "revolutionary" thing everyone was bemoaning about that the iPad doesn't have and all other tablets will have is... Adobe Flash support?! According to many know-it-alls and complainers once others add Flash the iPad will be rendered useless. So I think RIM, HP, MS, etc will play up their allowance of Flash, because really after that they can't offer much else Apple has. Flash and probably USB support and a cam, but everyone "in the know" knows the iPad will have a cam next March or April. If not sooner since Steve said they will ship tens of millions of devices with FaceTime by end of this year.
Yes cos the Flash thing has held true for mobile phones, like they said if the iPhone didn't allow Flash...oh hang on!
Black is the first part of their name and a word that's synonymous with "cool." The best product in the category is called "iPad." Based on that, "BlackPad" seems kind of obvious. I don't see what could possibly be wrong with it. The closest alternative seems to be "PadBerry" (awful!), or "BlackSlate" or BlackTablet" (both are cumbersome at best).
I imagine part of the "bad name" comes from the fact they can't even come up with an ounce of originality in even the name. They are riding the coat tails of the famous brand, rather than creating something distinct.
I'm all for competition, Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Google, HP fighting it out allows for better and less expensive products for us consumers; however, for pete's sake, why can't the other companies be innovative like Apple???? Apple already invented the iPhone and iPad, why can't the others create something that will blow our socks of instead of developing an Apple knock-off, this is really irritating!!! These companies keep missing the point, the reason I'm attracted to Apple is because of the outstanding development tools, the other companies tools are just crap at this point. They have no real viable distribution model, too many varying mobile models and I cant reliably think that their devices will be around long enough to invest the development time. Without superb development tools and a sound distribution model they will only sink faster in the future. If they do not develop the back end, they are dead. Period. Is my thinking completely misguided on this? Am I missing something? People in these companies are much smarter than I am, yet they seem to miss the obvious moving forward. I don't get it.
TundraBuggy - you are right on the mark. But don't expect any of the geniuses on this thread to agree with you. It has something to do with ... 'not being able to see the wood for the trees'.
seeing as how Apple has done everything already, RIM should ship next week. Of course, BB will keep up tradition and make their's out of cheap black plastic.
It's likely that RIM's copycat BlackPad will fail. It's simply a knee jerk response to Apple's unexpected success with the iPad.
What's been overlooked is that Apple itself had been working on the iPad for some time.
Didn't Steve Jobs recently imply that the iPad was an older project than the iPhone, indeed that the iPhone was an incidental consequence of the iPad project at Apple?
As the first iPhone was launched in 2007, this implies that Apple has been working on the iPad for at least the past five years.
Therefore RIM has five years of catch up to equal what Apple is offering today as they have no experience with tablet computing. At least HP can draw on its experience with Tablet PCs.
Tablet computing has been a concept that's been around since Captain Kirk and his pad in the 60's Star Trek.
Atari had it's prototype Pad in the late eighties, early nineties and they've been numerous other failed or mediocre attempts by many including HP.
It's difficult to see any other company having the same drive, vision and commitment Apple has in making a success of its tablet device.
I'm all for competition, Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Google, HP fighting it out allows for better and less expensive products for us consumers; however, for pete's sake, why can't the other companies be innovative like Apple???? Apple already invented the iPhone and iPad, why can't the others create something that will blow our socks of instead of developing an Apple knock-off, this is really irritating!!! These companies keep missing the point, the reason I'm attracted to Apple is because of the outstanding development tools, the other companies tools are just crap at this point. They have no real viable distribution model, too many varying mobile models and I cant reliably think that their devices will be around long enough to invest the development time. Without superb development tools and a sound distribution model they will only sink faster in the future. If they do not develop the back end, they are dead. Period. Is my thinking completely misguided on this? Am I missing something? People in these companies are much smarter than I am, yet they seem to miss the obvious moving forward. I don't get it.
tundraBuggy, have you worked in the corporate environment? It's all a pretty stupid thing, actually. Most companies either fail, or just cruise along if they are able to survive. Business is sometimes complicated, occasionally interesting and really innovative, but usually just plain boring.
The fact is that as long as products do most of what people want, and enough people are buying it, it will continue to be sold and the company survives.
Not many companies are always seeking to create something new, enter new markets, being brave, taking risks...
The most exciting work times I've had is when a company is starting out, because almost everything they do is about creating something new, entering new markets, being brave, taking risks, willing to spend on innovation. Once the company goes into cruise control things start to get boring, and it's mostly about work politics, maintaining relationships [ie. sucking up or cozying up to the right people], etc.
nvidia2008 - you miss the critical point of tundraBuggy's post. Apple can be highly innovative because they have developed a world class product development strategy that encompasses hardware, software, app development tools and product distribution. And it has taken over 10 years for Jobs to get that strategy implemented. Because of this, skilled Apple engineers are free to design and build products (that customers will stand in long queues to buy), without constantly being frustrated by boring jobs and incompetent middle managers. It is this product development strategy that enables Apple to appear to 'walk' into whatever market they choose and completely revolutionise it. And hopefully that strategy is so well embedded inside Apple now that it will continue well beyond Steve Jobs' tenure as CEO.
None of Apple's current 'wannabe' competitors have shown they have the patience to develop a similar product development strategy - particularly Steve Ballmer. Until these CEO's get their acts together in this regard they will be chasing Apple's tail and feeding off Apple's market leftovers until their employees, shareholders and customers finally abandon them.
Without superb development tools and a sound distribution model they will only sink faster in the future. If they do not develop the back end, they are dead. Period. Is my thinking completely misguided on this? Am I missing something? People in these companies are much smarter than I am, yet they seem to miss the obvious moving forward. I don't get it.
They probably know they need an entire ecosystem, but it's easier said than done. iOS and Xcode (under various names) were in development for 10 years at NeXT and another 10 years at Apple before the first iPhone came out. The iTunes Store had been open for 5 years before App Store opened.
These other companies could design an ecosystem on paper, but... implementing it and making it work is not so easy. Google and Microsoft are the two closest to matching what Apple has. If they joined forces...
...Google and Microsoft are the two closest to matching what Apple has. If they joined forces...
Google and Microsoft are both primarily software companies, while Apple gets most of the revenue from selling hardware. Both Google and Microsoft are unmatched in the success and penetration of their major products, Google Search and Windows. However, clearly they don't have a chance in competing with Apple in the areas where Apple excels, neither on their own, nor by joining forces. Don't try to compare apples and oranges.
Google and Microsoft are both primarily software companies, while Apple gets most of the revenue from selling hardware. Both Google and Microsoft are unmatched in the success and penetration of their major products, Google Search and Windows. However, clearly they don't have a chance in competing with Apple in the areas where Apple excels, neither on their own, nor by joining forces. Don't try to compare apples and oranges.
The person I was replying to was bemoaning the fact that other companies lack the dev tool quality and app distribution platform of Apple. I was claiming that MS (with Visual Studio) and Google (with their extensive server side experience) could get together and solve this. I wasn't claiming they had the hardware design skills of Apple, or even discussing hardware at all.
Comments
Why would someone buy a Blackpad for the same price as an iPad when the Apple app store is so gigantic with a hundred thousand apps ready to go? Are RIM customers that loyal to a shrinking company? I'm all for competition but having the same type of device with similar features for the same price but with less capability out of the box won't work well. If it were priced $150 to $200 less then it would have a chance to do well.
In all fairness, the product hasn't been released or even spec-ed yet. How can you say no one wants to buy it when you don't even know what it is?
There are several ways which the BlackPad could succeed over the iPad, it's not like the iPad has all the bases covered. For starters, the most likely angle is content creation. The iPad sucks rather badly at any uses that aren't basically "passive" uses. A BlackPad that allowed for better typing or had a decent stylus would have a better feature set than the iPad right out of the gate.
Personally, I have almost zero confidence in BlackBerry or RIM based on how clueless they have been so far in responding to the iPhone, but it's always possible they will come up with something.
How about the Graspberry? ( get it? )
or the Juice ( the result of touching a blackberry )
I'm joking of course, but do you realize that real marketing people sit around and have conversations like this all day long?
That's an even worse name than iPad.
I don't get these "bad name" comments.
Black is the first part of their name and a word that's synonymous with "cool." The best product in the category is called "iPad." Based on that, "BlackPad" seems kind of obvious. I don't see what could possibly be wrong with it. The closest alternative seems to be "PadBerry" (awful!), or "BlackSlate" or BlackTablet" (both are cumbersome at best).
I thought the "revolutionary" thing everyone was bemoaning about that the iPad doesn't have and all other tablets will have is... Adobe Flash support?! According to many know-it-alls and complainers once others add Flash the iPad will be rendered useless. So I think RIM, HP, MS, etc will play up their allowance of Flash, because really after that they can't offer much else Apple has. Flash and probably USB support and a cam, but everyone "in the know" knows the iPad will have a cam next March or April. If not sooner since Steve said they will ship tens of millions of devices with FaceTime by end of this year.
Yes cos the Flash thing has held true for mobile phones, like they said if the iPhone didn't allow Flash...oh hang on!
I don't get these "bad name" comments.
Black is the first part of their name and a word that's synonymous with "cool." The best product in the category is called "iPad." Based on that, "BlackPad" seems kind of obvious. I don't see what could possibly be wrong with it. The closest alternative seems to be "PadBerry" (awful!), or "BlackSlate" or BlackTablet" (both are cumbersome at best).
I imagine part of the "bad name" comes from the fact they can't even come up with an ounce of originality in even the name. They are riding the coat tails of the famous brand, rather than creating something distinct.
I could be wrong though.
...I don't get it.
Stay in school. You'll get it eventually.
Are you kidding. ... most business owners I've met had blackberries because they are blackberries and that's what business people use.
Before there were Blackberries though, most business owners used Treos because ... they were Treos and that's what business people use.
Before Windows 95, most business owners used DOS, because ... it was DOS and that's what business people use.
etc. etc.
Tautological statements are always useless.
What's been overlooked is that Apple itself had been working on the iPad for some time.
Didn't Steve Jobs recently imply that the iPad was an older project than the iPhone, indeed that the iPhone was an incidental consequence of the iPad project at Apple?
As the first iPhone was launched in 2007, this implies that Apple has been working on the iPad for at least the past five years.
Therefore RIM has five years of catch up to equal what Apple is offering today as they have no experience with tablet computing. At least HP can draw on its experience with Tablet PCs.
Tablet computing has been a concept that's been around since Captain Kirk and his pad in the 60's Star Trek.
Atari had it's prototype Pad in the late eighties, early nineties and they've been numerous other failed or mediocre attempts by many including HP.
It's difficult to see any other company having the same drive, vision and commitment Apple has in making a success of its tablet device.
I'm all for competition, Apple, RIM, Microsoft, Google, HP fighting it out allows for better and less expensive products for us consumers; however, for pete's sake, why can't the other companies be innovative like Apple???? Apple already invented the iPhone and iPad, why can't the others create something that will blow our socks of instead of developing an Apple knock-off, this is really irritating!!! These companies keep missing the point, the reason I'm attracted to Apple is because of the outstanding development tools, the other companies tools are just crap at this point. They have no real viable distribution model, too many varying mobile models and I cant reliably think that their devices will be around long enough to invest the development time. Without superb development tools and a sound distribution model they will only sink faster in the future. If they do not develop the back end, they are dead. Period. Is my thinking completely misguided on this? Am I missing something? People in these companies are much smarter than I am, yet they seem to miss the obvious moving forward. I don't get it.
tundraBuggy, have you worked in the corporate environment? It's all a pretty stupid thing, actually. Most companies either fail, or just cruise along if they are able to survive. Business is sometimes complicated, occasionally interesting and really innovative, but usually just plain boring.
The fact is that as long as products do most of what people want, and enough people are buying it, it will continue to be sold and the company survives.
Not many companies are always seeking to create something new, enter new markets, being brave, taking risks...
The most exciting work times I've had is when a company is starting out, because almost everything they do is about creating something new, entering new markets, being brave, taking risks, willing to spend on innovation. Once the company goes into cruise control things start to get boring, and it's mostly about work politics, maintaining relationships [ie. sucking up or cozying up to the right people], etc.
None of Apple's current 'wannabe' competitors have shown they have the patience to develop a similar product development strategy - particularly Steve Ballmer. Until these CEO's get their acts together in this regard they will be chasing Apple's tail and feeding off Apple's market leftovers until their employees, shareholders and customers finally abandon them.
Without superb development tools and a sound distribution model they will only sink faster in the future. If they do not develop the back end, they are dead. Period. Is my thinking completely misguided on this? Am I missing something? People in these companies are much smarter than I am, yet they seem to miss the obvious moving forward. I don't get it.
They probably know they need an entire ecosystem, but it's easier said than done. iOS and Xcode (under various names) were in development for 10 years at NeXT and another 10 years at Apple before the first iPhone came out. The iTunes Store had been open for 5 years before App Store opened.
These other companies could design an ecosystem on paper, but... implementing it and making it work is not so easy. Google and Microsoft are the two closest to matching what Apple has. If they joined forces...
...Google and Microsoft are the two closest to matching what Apple has. If they joined forces...
Google and Microsoft are both primarily software companies, while Apple gets most of the revenue from selling hardware. Both Google and Microsoft are unmatched in the success and penetration of their major products, Google Search and Windows. However, clearly they don't have a chance in competing with Apple in the areas where Apple excels, neither on their own, nor by joining forces. Don't try to compare apples and oranges.
Once you go black you'll never go back..
No! Once you go Mac you never go back!
Next up, will RIM have a built from the ground, 100% fingerable productivity suite like iworks for ipad? Hell no!!!!!
Will RIM have their version of ibooks,itunes and app store that all integrate like water accepting water?
Hell no!!!!
End of sermon. Can I get an amen!!!!!
HHHHHHHAAAAAUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
Google and Microsoft are both primarily software companies, while Apple gets most of the revenue from selling hardware. Both Google and Microsoft are unmatched in the success and penetration of their major products, Google Search and Windows. However, clearly they don't have a chance in competing with Apple in the areas where Apple excels, neither on their own, nor by joining forces. Don't try to compare apples and oranges.
The person I was replying to was bemoaning the fact that other companies lack the dev tool quality and app distribution platform of Apple. I was claiming that MS (with Visual Studio) and Google (with their extensive server side experience) could get together and solve this. I wasn't claiming they had the hardware design skills of Apple, or even discussing hardware at all.