It's an obvious v1.0 product, but the free tethering and pairing makes it look pretty compelling if you're already a Blackberry user (which I am).
Judging from the videos, the performance of the software is much better than I would have guessed. I'm assuming most of the bundled software is written in Adobe Air. The prospect of being a 1st-class citizen on the OS should be appealing to existing Flash developers.
I'm not yet sold on a 7" screen size for a "tablet", although it would be more luggable; the only way my iPad leaves the house is in my laptop bag. However, I am absolutely sure that the iPad's 4:3 screen ratio is the only way to go. The only time 16:10 doesn't cripple you is when you're watching a movie.
Back to 80's! Seriously though I just hope they have a good, defensive multitasking system that unloads apps from memory automatically and do save/restore state as required. Otherwise it's going to have a bad rap - users are just not used to seeing out of memory messages on mobile phones while starting apps.
Many people say RIM has an odd shipping model but I just think they're slow. When you look at how Apple ships a product, they announce the product, the details, show off the apps, and then BAM! It's available in two weeks and sells millions.
RIM on the other hand announces something and then every few months teases you with more and more details and then releases some half baked product with bi-monthly updates. By the time the product becomes what they intended it to be I already want something new.
As a Blackberry user, I can't give it up. I love my Blackberry's form factor. At the same time, it's an incredibly frustrating experience.
Underpromise & over-deliver vs over-promise & under-deliver. When you over-promise you're raising expectations that you can't possibly meet, but when people have nothing to compare the product to, e.g. the first iPhone/iPad and it's launching in days/weeks, not some ethereal date subject to change a year or more away. Remember that HP-Windows 7 "iSlate" Ballmer showed off? Vaporware. Why even bother telling lies if it's only going to inevitably disappoint? Maybe they are just naive?
Interesting that you would neglect to tell readers how warm / hot that baby got after playing with it for a while. Also, make sure you mention how cheap and easily breakable the buttons felt on it.
I've had a change to play with it for about 2 minutes recently and now, after reading this review, I'd absolutely love to have it. If only I had the cash ... Well I could probably afford it, but then I'd want to upgrade my Bold 9000 too, and that would amount to some serious shortage in my wallet :)
I'm really happy for RIM (as this looks like an awesome product), everybody is "picking" on them and basically putting them into a grave. I really hope PlayBook turns this trend around a little and they return to their former glory.
The consensus seems to be "it's solid, but not special". I guess RIM needs to keep working even harder now to actually determine whether their tablets make it or not.
The good news for them is that starting 1 year behind the competition doesn't necessarily mean they won't be able to carve out a profitable slice of this rapidly growing market in the future.
The business market, where RIM has had a lot of success, seems to prefer "solid, but not special". I don't think they will do as poorly as many seem to think. Everyone compares it to the iPad, which feels like more of a consumer toy than a business tool to me. I think there is definitely overlap, but I don't think it is trying to be the iPad. This is good, because if it were, it would fail.
To someone that does not want to play games or watch movies, all of those features stack up to absolutely nothing. I opted for a Kindle DX over an iPad 2, and some people think I am crazy. It does what I need, and does it very well. That's all the PlayBook has to do to be successful.
The PlayBook's #1 priority should have been to leverage the popularity of BlackBerries among existing enterprise customers. The PlayBook should have tightly integrated support for RIM's BlackBerry messaging services and Microsoft Exchange. Instead, the PlayBook does not even ship with email, calendar, or address book apps!
In fact, the AES-256 bridge possibly means even -faster- adaption as opposed to all native apps. Big corps would insist on all sorts of due diligence and ridiculous testing for a brand new model connecting to their BES (I've seen how long a certain company to get the 9700 approved...). With the BB bridge, way less silliness to go through.
Actually if a company is already paying for your blackberries data plan it may not like to pay for another blackberry device. But if you can use your phone a a bridge and save the need to have another data plan I think it is an excellent idea.
RIM is not a credible player in this market based on my reading of this review. They are a year plus behind, yet they all but promise that there will be multiple form factors (and therefore screen sizes) for PlayBooks. Have they thought through what that means? More developer complexity. Or some disgusting, fugly AWT-like layout manager hell. If there's some enormous development matrix that publishers need to deal with in order to get their products working with a maybe number three player, RIM is doomed. Seriously, I don't think anyone there understands how to launch or grow a platform or do quality product management, which often requires making tough choices and sticking with them. E.g. three sets of APIs, recall... (Android support for app "tonnage".)
Judging from the videos, the performance of the software is much better than I would have guessed. I'm assuming most of the bundled software is written in Adobe Air. The prospect of being a 1st-class citizen on the OS should be appealing to existing Flash developers.
I'm not yet sold on a 7" screen size for a "tablet", although it would be more luggable; the only way my iPad leaves the house is in my laptop bag. However, I am absolutely sure that the iPad's 4:3 screen ratio is the only way to go. The only time 16:10 doesn't cripple you is when you're watching a movie.
Anyway, I'm curious to see this thing in person.