BlackBerry PlayBook reviews say that it's not an iPad killer
RIM is aiming to launch its PlayBook tablet on April 19, but reviews of this QNX-powered tablet started to hit the wire last night. The consensus among reviewers suggests the PlayBook will not threaten Apple's dominance in the tablet market.
Most reviews point to the lack of available applications for the tablet as one major detriment. The PlayBook will launch with a catalog of 3,000 applications, a figure derived from the number of developers that have submitted applications to the BlackBerry App World. This number was bolstered by RIM's promise to give a free PlayBook to each developer whose application is approved before the launch of the tablet device. RIM expects to expand this catalog with Android and BlackBerry OS emulators that let users run applications from the Android Market and the BlackBerry World. This feature will land later this year.
A small application catalog is one drawback to the BlackBerry, but there are more. Read on to find out what other issues reviewers encountered when using RIM's tablet device.
Other reviewers paint the picture of a buggy device that is not ready for prime time. Reports of out of memory problems and crashing applications pepper the half dozen or so reviews currently circulating in the tech news. RIM promises frequent updates, but early adopters may be disappointed by the initial out of the box performance. In fact, the review units in the hands of most tech writers were apparently getting software updates almost daily throughout the review period, making the process of evaluating the PlayBook a bit dicey. Engadget's Tim Stevens put it this way: "What we see at the moment is a framework with solid fundamentals but a framework that is, right now, unfinished. We have hardware that looks and feels great but isn't being fully served by the software. And, ultimately, we have a tablet that's trying really hard to please the enterprise set but, in doing so, seems to be alienating casual users who might just want a really great seven-inch tablet."
Another drawback is RIM's decision to launch the device without a native email client, a calendar, contacts, tasks and memos. These applications are only available to PlayBook owners who own a BlackBerry and connect the tablet to their phone via Bluetooth. RIM has built an application conduit called Bridge that links a BlackBerry handset to a PlayBook tablet and lets the tablet user read the email, notes, calendar entries, contacts and tasks stored on the handset. Even this Bridge functionality is incomplete as it lacks important features, like the ability to view a file attachment or click a link in an email. Once again, RIM promises to add these native clients in future updates.
While many reviewers tip-toed around these glaring deficiencies, noted Apple pundit Jim Dalrymple had no kind words for RIM's first foray into the tablet market, "it has to be clear now -- RIM has no tablet strategy. Unless RIM's strategy was to provide users with a crashy, buggy pile of crap, even they should admit their failure now." Our former colleague Josh Topolsky was only somewhat more diplomatic: "[W]hat is the compelling feature that will make buyers choose the PlayBook over something else? I don't have that answer, but that's not what's troubling me -- what troubles me is that I don't think RIM has the answer either... and they should by now."Overall, the PlayBook does not show off RIM's tablet efforts to best effect; it seems to have impressed most reviewers as potentially cool but presently half-baked. The company came out swinging for a home run and ended up with a foul tip. As it stands, Apple and the iPad 2 team probably aren't worrying about the PlayBook just yet.
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RIM is aiming to launch its PlayBook tablet on April 19, but reviews of this QNX-powered tablet started to hit the wire last night....
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How's this "news"? There's no iPad killer. There's no iPhone killer. There's no iPad killer. Apple products can only be killer by newer Apple products.
April 16 2011 at 2:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe last one was supposed to be "iPod", not iPad
April 16 2011 at 2:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFrom a practical perspective, what's worse? Pushing a product out to market that is late and allows your competition to either increase their lead or erode any advantage that you had, or pushing out a product that is unfinished such that it receives duff reviews that will undoubtably put off potential buyers?
Ars Technica ran a lovely rant (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/youre-punished-for-buying-a-new-game-or-what-i-dont-want-to-do.ars) at the state of the gaming industry with its "ship then fix" mentality that has ruined gaming. The same seems to be true with the tablet market too.
I am going to start a web site designed to teach professional writers the difference between "that" and "who."
This is the fourth article I have read today in which a professional writer referred to a "who" as a "that."
Maybe I should go find more constructive ways to fill my time.
as I said before, the following is true:
Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon are not suits.
RIM, Microsoft, Dell, HP, and all other plastics purveyors, are suits.
Suits copy. Non suits innovate.
You serious?
Android is just a copy of iOS, has been from the beginning... but suceeds due to the services google started on iPhone 1.0. Meanwhile WebOS and WP7 both took different and new approaches to the mobile OS space. To call WP7 with Live Tiles, and the Metro UI in general, or WebOS and the Card interface, their way of handleing notifications.. and other things.. NOT innovative is.. fanboying.
People complaining about the iPad bezel better be screaming from rooftops about this one.
April 14 2011 at 8:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAt least the PlayBook bezel is active.
April 15 2011 at 10:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhenever I read these reviews of a new device coming from a company that's new to the space, I often hear reviewers use the phrase "well it's not as good as X-product from X-company, but it's just a 1.0/1st gen product, I'm sure that they'll really knock it out of the park on 2.0". I understand the need for them to placate the company that they are reviewing [since they want more review units in the future], but I wish reviewers would remember that this is now a mature category, and not coming out of the gate with a product that competes on EVERY level, is unacceptable. Just imagine a new car company bringing out a sedan without a radio, high-beams, comfortable seats, cabin heaters, only has a speedometer and gas gauge, and is a crank start engine... Sure they're all things that SOME could live without, but who would have green-lit that product to come to market.
In a world of 2nd/3rd/4th gen products [the iPad arguably even later given the previous iPod/iPhone development] there's no excuse for a 1.0 [or 0.89b] product to hit reviewers hands, let alone the retail shelves. So in short, stop reviewers, stop giving new entrants to a given category a pass. That's how crap keeps getting released.
Good point. It's not like they have to guess at what people do with the device now. I also find it amazing to any reviewer that releasing something that's 70% me-to and 30% missing in action, that they are nice about it in any way, shape or form. Using your car example, if Ford released a new car and it worked OK, looked OK, but the gas tank only lets you drive for 7 minutes, do you think a reviewer would spend time talking about how convenient the cup holder is?
I mean this Berry Tablet FAILS at running for what, more than maybe 4 hours...I don't care if it has 2 or 100,000 apps, that is a complete failure for the type of technology it is pretending to be. Ugh...
It's not an iPad killer but it is a RIM killer.
Apple starts out with a new product concept by asking - What new cool thing do people need?
RIM starts out their product design by asking - how do we preserve sales of our blackberry mail server?
Viola, a larger $500 screen for reading blackberry emails but emails and the web dims to monochrome and non functional when you walk more than 3 feet away with a blackberry phone.
This thing might as well flash FAIL in it's 7" screen as a screesaver to save everyone some time.
Quick - who will sell more of this stone age tablet? Blackberry authorized dealers or the developers who got one for "free" on ebay? I think sales of about 3,000 is right ...
I wish typing tuaw.com wasn't easy/habit. re-hashing articles from other blogs hours after it was news is getting old.
April 14 2011 at 5:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyconsidering many people don't read news blogs 24/7 as they have jobs and such, an article that is a few hours (or even a day or more) old is still interesting and newsworthy.
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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