

RIM introduces PlayBook -- the BlackBerry tablet - pistoriusp
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/rim-introduces-playbook-the-blackberry-tablet/

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m0nastic
I was happy to see the RIM acquisition of QNX bear fruit so early (I've always
been a big fan of QNX).

I get the impression from the keynote that as the plan is to tune a JVM for
performance working on top of QNX, that the longterm plan for the phones is to
also migrate to QNX. (The tablet provides a good means to test this out, and
get it working before migrating the phones)

This is one benefit to the virtual-machine based phones, if something better
comes along in the underlying OS, you can migrate apps easier.

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runinit
Companies should really learn from Apple. When you announce a new product;
have it ready to ship within in the month. Every single alternative tablet I
have seen is coming Qx 2011. I don't want to wait for an alternative - i want
it now.

~~~
raganwald
_When you announce a new product; have it ready to ship within in the month_
(sic)

In martial arts they have this thing they call "telegraphing" a blow, where
you unwittingly give your opponent plenty of notice of what's coming so that
they can be ready to counter it.

Obviously RIM is so confident of their manufacturing and marketing prowess
that they don't mind giving Apple 3-6 months notice of what they plan to ship.

On another subject, why is RIM even in this business? Are Apple iPads taking
market share away from Blackberrys? Is iPad some kind of a threat to RIM? I
would have guessed that RIM would be pouring all of its efforts into defending
its corporate phone turf, not thinning their forces by launching new devices.

~~~
YooLi
"Obviously RIM is so confident of their manufacturing and marketing prowess
that they don't mind giving Apple 3-6 months notice of what they plan to
ship."

Really? To me it reeks of "don't forget about us". They are telegraphing not
because they are so confident in their punch but because they don't want
people to forget they are in the fight.

~~~
raganwald
I apologise for being a little sarcastic. However, "Don't forget about us" is
only useful if their customers, especially their "enterprise" customers, are
about to standardize on iPads and can be persuaded to hold off on the basis of
PR stunt.

It's not obvious to me that consumers interested in buying an iPad for back-
to-school or during the holiday season will hold up their purchases to see
what RIM actually ships and how much it costs.

~~~
wvenable
RIM really has nothing to lose -- they're not going to get this tablet out in
time for Christmas 2010 so they might as well announce it now. They have
little to gain in saying nothing until they launch because they're going to
launch too late.

~~~
raganwald
When you put it like that, maybe we're missing the obvious. Maybe this isn't
aimed at Apple, maybe it's aimed at HP.

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mixmax
It's interesting to see how everyone tries to copy Apple's success without
getting the point.

What made the Ipad (and the Iphone and the Ipod) a success was the fact that
Apple created a new category that didn't exist before and marketed the hell
out of it. All the me-too products make the fatal mistake of trying to make a
product that's better than Apple's in the category that Apple invented and
owns.

No matter how hard you try to make a product that's an Ipad-killer you'll
never succeed because it's not an Ipad. It's like the cheap knock-offs of
brand names - the chinese Konferse shoes might look like Converse, they might
be cheaper and they might even be better but nobody will buy them because they
aren't the original Converse.

If you want to own a niche you have to innovate your way there. You can't out-
ipad and ipad. One of the commenters in the article even called it a palmpad.

I remember an interview with Jonathan Ive (Apple's chief designer) where he
was asked what he would make if he was given the task of creating a phone for
another company. His answer was "I don't know, but I do know that it would be
nothing like the Iphone"

~~~
iouytgyhjk
Yes that's why everyone else's attempts to put email on a phone and copy the
Blackberry has failed.

What made the Blackberry a success was the fact that RIM created a new
category ......

~~~
m0nastic
I realize you're being clever by substituting the original poster's argument,
but RIM did indeed create a new category.

When the Blackberry shipped, it wasn't a smartphone. It wasn't a phone at all.
It was a dedicated email device. And it was pretty much alone in that
category.

It became popular in businesses that had previously been using pagers
(specifically 2-way pagers), and eventually they added a phone component
(which was actually terrible for the first few iterations).

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wikyd
A lot of people here are referring to the iPad as a tablet computer, but I
think that most consumers and Apple do not think of the iPad as a tablet,
slate, or other terms that imply computer. It's an appliance. Apple doesn't
highlight or easily make available the typical computer specs like RAM, chip
speed, etc. You buy an iPad and you know the software will just work. You
don't have to worry about if your iPad can run X program or Y program, etc.
Any stress that most people associate with computers aren't even concerns with
the iPad.

What surprises me about the PlayBook is that BB can't seem to make up it's
mind about how it's marketing the product. They pretty clearly emulate the
iPad in that the web, Flash, etc. just work, but at the same time they
highlight specs that mark it clearly as a computer. These specs really don't
matter when competing with Apple, because only a very smaller portion of the
market would even consider the specs when choosing between the iPad and the
BB. Even the name can't make up it's mind; Book really labels it as a
computer, but Play makes it seem otherwise. I sort of assumed that BB would be
targeting mainly enterprise customers at first with their tablet, but naming
it Play really conflicts with even that strategy.

In short, the product seems like design by committee and I think it's identity
crisis will be a problem for it.

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protomyth
That Q2 2011 date might make for some trouble if Apple set the iPad on a
yearly update cycle. QNX's contribution will be interesting.

~~~
ugh
I would expect the new iPad no later than Q2 2011. The current generation was
announced in January and available in April. I see no reason why Apple
shouldn’t update the iPad yearly – just like the iPhone and their iPods.

~~~
protomyth
If they do announce in Jan and ship in April (probably quicker this time),
then Blackberry might not look as good in comparison. I really don't get why
you would tip off your competition unless they are counting on a lot of
companies doing budgeting for this new device.

~~~
ugh
Well, I’m not sure how much Apple could or would want to change the next iPad
at this point in time. At any rate, 2011 will be an exciting year for tablets.

~~~
protomyth
They will probably add the front facing camera and probably the next
generation of A4 to keep up with the summer iPhone / fall iPod touch.

If they go the iPod evolution route, I expect to see a price drop to put more
pressure on the low-end. I still dream of a dock / network sync that will
allow people not to have to own another computer.

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simonsquiff
The UI looks very impressive from the video. Very slick and fluid, the
multitasking animation in particular is lovely.

Will be interesting if this is the real UI or not - it might just be a mockup
like that infamous Nokia N97 promotional video vs the terrible reality:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1231464>

~~~
varaon
They don't show a physical product in the mockup. I suspect you're right - we
won't know for certain until someone does a hands on. In particular, I'm
skeptical of Flash's performance, unless they've done some neat HW
acceleration.

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thought_alarm
Well, this is the first non-iPad tablet that I find remotely compelling. If
this thing doesn't require a carrier to be useful and affordable then it has a
chance.

~~~
megablast
Why? Do not see anything special about this compared with the Samsung, or any
other tablets that are coming out? It will come down to the software, and damn
do I hate blackberry OS (not played with 6 yet). I look forward to having
everything displayed as lists.

~~~
bryanlarsen
I guess it's a good thing that it doesn't use the blackberry OS, then.

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jsz0
I'm not convinced 7" displays are the right size for tablets. Using the iPad
9-10" feels right to me. That might just be experience bias but I don't really
see any advantages of going smaller. Might as well just get one of the bigger
SmartPhones at that point. If anything I think the future of tablets might be
larger -- not smaller. I would love to have a 13 or 15" iPad.

~~~
chubs
I agree. I think it's silly that RIM says their playbook will be 7", but cost
the same as an ipad. Smaller, but not cheaper? I'm not sure that's going to
make things easier for the poor salespeople in the shops trying to sell these.

~~~
jarek
Just like a Macbook Air is smaller, but not cheaper than a Macbook Pro? Come
on.

(Before the obvious response: yes, the Playbook is thinner and lighter than
the iPad, too.)

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joubert
I don't see what's business-y about this thing at all. Press photos show
Videos, Photos, Music apps. In the FaceTime-like app, it is a dad chatting to
a baby.

Just saying.

I presume hackers will love the dual-core goodness (I wouldn't mind
experimenting with Clojure on it). Wonder what their development environment
is like and how good the UI kit is.

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ghshephard
All the major players with a mobility presence realize they have to have a
tablet in this game for their channel. HP, RIM, Dell - hell, even Cisco has a
tablet:

<http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11156/index.html>?

I don't think Cisco/RIM are that interested in the consumer space (initially)
- my guess is they have ceded the first couple years to Apple, and will start
with the Business Vertical - an area that Apple seemingly has fairly low
interest in pursuing seriously (to date - They succeed in valley companies,
where 80% of the laptops in meetings I go to are Mac Book Pros, despite
themselves. I mean, seriously - how difficult is it to get enterprise on-site
support...)

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1053r
I think I'd still rather have a Notion Ink Adam
([http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-notion-ink-adam-
prot...](http://blog.laptopmag.com/hands-on-with-notion-ink-adam-prototype-
its-amazing)). It's supposed to be coming out Q4 this year, and has a pixelQi
screen (combines the best qualities of e-ink and LCD). iPad like price and
form factor, runs android, what's not to like?

But then again I already have a Nexus One, so I've clearly drunk the Android
kool-aid.

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cwilson
I really hope they actually do something with the platform that allows it to
live up to its name, "PlayBook". I hope they didn't just name it that because
they liked the sound or the metaphor at face value.

Think about it. Enterprise types are very competitive and sports fans; so the
idea of carrying around your work "playbook" suddenly becomes very cool. I
understand that the mix of calendar / email / and web make this the case for
any device but I'm still waiting for someone to push the bar forward in this
area specifically.

I'm a huge iPad fan but I'm still waiting on a developer to do something that
takes all the different content buckets (GTD apps, email, Dropbox, Basecamp,
Yammer, CRM, etc) and create an interface that allows them to work well
together and with others (be it people on your team, company wide, or maybe
just your family and friends). I'd really like to see someone do what
FlipBoard did for RSS feeds and social feeds on the iPad but for being busy at
work, in and out of meetings, on the go, etc.

The name "PlayBook" really hits home for me there but I have a hunch that it's
just a name and nothing more.

------
drcode
no mention of battery life- a worrisome omission.

~~~
ComputerGuru
BlackBerry's typically have incredible battery life - far beyond that of any
other smartphone I've used. Obviously this is a whole new kind of beast, with
regards to both software and hardware. However, I'm confident (optimistic?)
that RIM will have stuck to their legacy of excellent battery life with this
latest offering.

~~~
potatolicious
Problem is that they've got a CPU that is (reportedly) twice as quick as
what's in the iPad, more RAM... and 0.5 lbs less weight.

As we've seen from the iPad teardowns, the vast majority of the iPad's mass is
the massive battery. 0.5 lbs seems like it's a lot to rob from a battery
_while_ increasing the power consumption of the device.

~~~
mbrubeck
The Playbook's screen has about half the area of the iPad's. That will
probably make a big difference in power consumption.

------
brisance
Based on specs alone and QNX's track record, this seems to be a credible
competitor to the iPad. At least much better than the HP slate running on
Windows 7.

Going through the Blackberry site, it isn't clear how apps are developed for
the Playbook. One page mentions web development using the HTML5 stack and
Adobe Flash. Perhaps the apps are developed as a bundled runtime on top of
Flash?

~~~
thought_alarm
They talked up the POSIX environment and OpenGL, as well as a JVM for classic
BlackBerry compatibility. But for now it appears the only dev kits available
are HTML5 and Flash, which isn't surprising.

Like Apple and iOS, RIM will need to finish writing v1.0 of their own native
apps before they will have a good idea of what the public APIs should be. And
it remains to be seen just what that native API will resemble, what
language(s) it will support, how good the documentation is, etc. Those things
just don't fall from the sky. On the other hand, RIM has lots of experience in
that area.

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jinushaun
RIM needs to fix the Storm and Torch before they even try to attack the tablet
market. Those two products don't give me much confidence in this new one,
although the Playbook is based on a different OS: QNX instead of BB.

As for the Playbook, too much fake pre-rendered animations, not enough actual
video of the tablet.

~~~
suhit
I think the playbook is out there to test QNX and then to use in RIM's
smartphones.

Also, if you consider the idea of working on the PlayBook using the info and
data in the BB phones that is fantastic in a work environment.

Use your emails, docs etc on the PLayBook when the phone is in proximity and
also utilize the cellular connection of the phone.

I think they have some really good ideas there.

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dstein
Facebook lawsuit coming in 3.. 2.. 1...

~~~
Ennis
Why do you say that?

~~~
borisk
Becouse RIM stole the word book? ;-)

So far FB have only sued social networks with book in their name.

------
dmix
What's interesting about this will be the enterprise adoption.

Blackberry's played a key role in kickstarting smartphone adoption, even
though iphone takes all the credit.

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akikuchi
one of the tagline descriptors from the video: "Flash-loving"

Interesting they highlight that in their first marketing video. I suppose with
these things it can be difficult to differentiate device capabilities that
consumers can actually comprehend (as opposed to just tech spec stats). I
still wonder to what extent people actually know whether or not they care
about having flash capabilities on their mobile devices.

~~~
superk
+multitasking and the front/rear cameras were all pokes at the current gen
iPad.

~~~
YooLi
Except when this finally comes it, it will be time for iPad 2nd gen. Seems
like worthless jabs for a product still 6 months out.

~~~
rimantas
And multitasking comes to iPad when, next month?

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raptrex
Anyone else think it was weird they said it will be "an incredible gaming
platform for publishers and the players"?

~~~
YooLi
Indeed. Especially if it is aimed at business.

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d2viant
If they're going to compete with Apple, they need to work on their
presentation and connection with the consumer. The guy in the pinstripe suit
and tie is simply no comparison to having a passionate Steve Jobs in jeans up
there on stage walking you through it live like you're sitting at a desk with
him.

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rradu
Seems like a pretty good product if it launched now, but Apple will soon
announce the next iPad which will likely leave many of the PlayBook's
distinguishing features in the dust.

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sahaj
VOTE: between this and galaxy tab, which would you buy?

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achompas
Thank God they didn't call it the BlackPad.

~~~
rradu
Actually, I think that would've been a better name than the PlayBook.

Considering that RIM's marketing it as a "professional-grade" product, Play
just seems like the wrong word to use.

~~~
alxp
Think sports metaphor.

~~~
achompas
Thank you. This is a great name considering the enterprise market's
demographics. Much better than BlackPad.

