As a long time BlackBerry user, I get pretty excited when RIM, the company behind the iconic messaging device announces one of its new models. I have been particularly excited by the prospect of it introducing a new tablet device –- the PlayBook.
But excited as I am, I can’t ignore that the Canadian company is essentially hyping a product that isn’t likely to hit the market anytime soon. When it does, it’s likely to be entering a market overrun by competitors. What really got my goat this morning: RIM shared a video comparing its device with the iPad. Sure, it’s a nice comparison in a video but where’s the beef? I can see the iPad. I can use it. I can buy it. Compare that to PlayBook: For now, you can’t touch it; you can’t use it; and forget about buying it.
That hasn’t prevented RIM from putting out the video, which compares PlayBook to the iPad, or from sending out a news alert. According to RIM’s PR folks:
The video runs through a series of comparison tests with a PlayBook and iPad which demonstrate three things: the speed of the BlackBerry PlayBook Browser, its support for rich Flash content, and the performance of open web standards like HTML 5 on the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Yeah, all that is great, except at its developer day in San Francisco, the company wouldn’t even let anyone touch the device. It has been nearly six weeks since RIM publicly announced the tablet. There are still no hands-on impressions from anyone who isn’t working for RIM. If other news reports are to be believed, it will early 2011 before the device shows up in the market.
Related Research from GigaOM Pro (Sub. Required.)
- Why Google Launched App Inventor
- Rogue Devices: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 1
- Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
