BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad: The challenger looks fast so far

From what I've seen so far from the Playbook, I have been impressed. For their first try it will be better than the first IPad. We use a BES so it would integrate nicely and would be more secure than the IPad at this point. We have to have control over our data so being able to wipe or lock a device is important to us. I could see RIM taking the pad market in a few years if the Playbook delivers. The holdup right now is an issue with the battery. Was looking forward to getting my hands on one this month but it is delayed.

I'm impressed. That Blackbook, sorry Playbook really blows the doors off the year old iPad. Too bad it isn't shipping yet. It's too bad that the second generation iPad is set to be launched within a month of the supposed release date of the Blackbook, er Playbook.

It's too bad that the second generation iPad will most likely destroy this when shipped.

It's too bad.

So fare its a Unicorn !

And who know what hardware will be in ipads in a year from now, when this PERHAPS will ship

Don't forget - your IT may not (actually should not) let you just pop a PlayBook onto your corporate network. It ain't the Blackberry OS so they should do a proper security review.

Interesting but at the same time worthless. It is worthless because they are demoing against year old hardware that will be updated very soon.

It is i teresting though for a number of reasons. One is the physical size of the device which for many will make far more sense than Apples choice. Then there is QNX which makes this a unique play in the market and could concievably be a better play than Android. The big negative is the devices use of Flash.

In any event I won't discount the units success yet. It all depends upon how the OS develops over time, and the little things like battery life and snappyness.

As. To flash on iPad it is always possible in the future. The combination of a dual core processor along with Adobe fixing flash could change Apples mind. Certainly flash on a memory constrained device like iPad and iPhone was pretty stupid but future iPads won't have these constraints.

In any event no "pads" for me until this market shakes out a bit and we see what iPad two is like. The market isn't compelling enough right now and and the lack of features on iPad is very bothersome.

I couldn't help but notice the demostrator typing in ".-c- o- m" instead of pushing the ".com" button on the iPad...

I'll wait for iPad 2 thanks and as for flash yawn zzzzzzzzz change the record.

Before I begin this rant, I would like to point out that the Playbook should be defending itself against the iPhone as well. This Playbook demo should remind everyone of all of the deficiencies Blackberries have.

I visited UEFA's website and it loaded quickly, on my iPhone and iPad. The slight speed difference shown in the video would be more compelling if (1) UEFA was a frequently used site for most users or (2) loading times were substantially different. Try visiting this website on your iPhone 4 or iPad right now and you'll realize it works just fine. In the end, the selling points for the iPad don't include "fastest web browser" do they? Most people are attracted to the new user interface aesthetics and functionality. Even if speed is the number one feature and we judge the future Playbook against the old iPad, I echo the sentiment that iOS 4.2 and future updates will improve speeds.

The adidas flash shown here is a menu which deprecates in the absence of Flash. Why not pick out a website for your demo that breaks completely without flash? By the way, adidas.com does not work fully on the Playbook. Notably, the playbook cannot use "hover" and cannot render the animation smoothly. Besides, Adidas redirects iPhone users to shopadidas.com, which works fine. If I was looking for adidas stuff, I was probably interested in this site anyway.

The REAL ARGUMENT for flash capability on mobile devices is video and video games, and there are fewer holdouts by the day. Most flash games have not been designed well for finger sizes and touch ("hover"), so it is reasonable to say that the App Store is the better outlet for games. Having said that, why not demo a popular Flash-only game? Or if the playbook is so good at flash, why not demonstrate the device playing videos on Hulu?

The "pocket full of canvas" demo is a good example of how JAVASCRIPT can be slow on the iPad, but they pitch it as an HTML5 weakness. This instance would have been much more compelling with a real-world example. Google services (like Gmail) employ javascript and they run very snappy on the iPad and iPhone. I guess I'll have to go back to my desktop when I want to show my buddy the moving blob demo. Or I could always fire up Osmos on the iPad.

Nook Color specs:
- $249 with free shipping
- 7 inch Color LG Touchscreen 16 million colors with anti-glare coating 1024 x 600 delivering 169 pixels per inch.
- 8GB built in memory expandable to 32 GB with microSD card.
- 512 MB RAM
- Formats supported: EPUB, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, PPS, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, PPTX, JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC, MP4.
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), USB port
- OS: Android 2.1
- Processor: TI 800 Mhz ARM Cortex A8-based, 45nm OMAP3621

I'd say RIM's going to be embarrassed come spring 2011, when we'll see an iPad 2. The iPad two will definitely have a Cortex A9 and 1GB of RAM as well, so it will at least match if not beat the Playbook (the iPad is a larger device, so it will probably be a higher clocked processor) especially considering the iPad won't load the Flash content.