[ArgonNJ]

The new Amazon "Kindle Fire" has effectively created 2 tiers of devices and pricing. High end (ipad) and the low (Fire). Everything in between is toast. If RIM can deliver the Playbook at the price of the Fire, or a high end device with the application rich market of the ipad, then they have a chance, otherwise, like I said, they don't have a chance.

[daphne]

The great prognosticator who speaks as if he is delivering gospel, when in fact, he is speaking his own opinion.

Argon, I get the feeling you really *want* RIM to fail. Do you have some gripe with RIM or have they personally offended you?

[NJBlackBerry]

Or he is repeating something he read someplace else. Like BGR.

[jsconyers]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I'll bet you a years pay the Playbook will be history by 2012. It costs too much and does very little.

By 2012? You mean it will be history in 3 months? Hmmm, that may be a bet worth taking....

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

Or he is repeating something he read someplace else. Like BGR.

Actually I read it on PCmag.com

[hrbuckley]

Well here is something else I read on PCmag.com:

The tablet market is embryonic. It looks like everyone has an iPad, but that's nowhere near true. I'm not going to get into the details of analysts' predictions, because they're all just guesses, but everyone is at least guessing in the same direction: in the next few years, the tablet market will be several times the size it is now.

[rambo47]

Originally Posted by jsconyers

I wouldn't say the Xbox was a commercial disaster. The Xbox sold 123,000 units out of an approximate quarter million shipped units in the first three days. That is more than the Xbox 360 sold. The 360 sold 62,135 units sold of the 159,000 consoles shipped in the first two days--almost half of the original console launch.

As for the iPhone, I wouldn't say it was a train wreck at launch either. In fact, there were people lined out outside of the Apple store days before the device was launched. It reached 1 million units sold in just 74 days. The only thing that was a train wreck about it was the fact that the dropped the price two months after its release, thus screwing the early adopters. As for copy and paste, yeah it was missing that for a while, but if you never had it, how does one miss it?

As for the PlayBook. I think it was rushed out WAY too early. No native email client is a huge mistake, WiFi only with no option for a 3G unit is another mistake. Sprint dropped the possibility of carrying a 4G unit. The unit was rushed out, not even half-baked, but way under-cooked. When QNX 2 is released, it should be a lot better, but still, it's too little too late IMHO.

I agree that desperation at RIM caused them to publish an overly aggressive schedule for the PlayBook release, and then they felt compelled to meet that schedule. It clearly wasn't ready and was rushed out. Palm tried this with the Foleo back in the Treo days but killed it the day before launch. PlayBook is very Foleo-esque, with the need to tether (bridge) to a phone for all the features to work. It never should have been released until they were ready for normal tablet use with bridging bringing the user some extra features. Then it would have been a tablet+ instead of just an extension of your BlackBerry.

Xbox lost HUGE money for the first couple years. If you figure in the cost of buying Bungee just for Halo it gets even worse. It was a money pit but Microsoft stuck with it and Xbox took off. Excellent long-term vision.

I called the iPhone a train wreck on launch, but I'm speaking only from a capabilities point of view. It was an instant commercial success, even beyond Steve Jobs' wildest dreams. It was truly a "holy crap!" moment in Apple history. There were a ton of issues with the iPhone (wife still has her first gen iPhone in our 'old tech' cabinet) but the Apple faithful didn't care. Reminds me of this: I want an iphone 4 - YouTube

[rambo47]

In honor of ArgonNJ's avatar, I present (yet again!) the man with the moves, Steve Ballmer: Steve Ballmer going crazy - YouTube

I swear, I never get tired of this one!

[JSanders]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I'll bet you a years pay the Playbook will be history by 2012. It costs too much and does very little.

Define "be history" for me, and I'll take that bet.

[ArgonNJ]

Another satisfied Playbook user (non BGR)

Maybe RIM should kill the PlayBook | ZDNet

RIM should concentrate on their next gen QNX phone and leave the tablet market to Apple.

[NJBlackBerry]

Is that your own opinion or did you borrow it?

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

Is that your own opinion or did you borrow it?

That one is all mine

[hrbuckley]

I've heard this so many times "RIM should concentrate on their next gen QNX phone and leave the tablet market to Apple." But what no one seems to be able to explain is how concentrating on their next gen QNX phone is hampered by continuing to improve the PlayBook which runs, hmm let me see, QNX.

If you consider that the new phones will run the same OS, probably on the same or very similar hardware, the the UI, layerd applications and other user experience elements will be common. So continuing to work on the PlayBook is going to make the QNX phones better when they arrive.

[NJBlackBerry]

I agree with you.

Argon - there is an article on RIM in today's Wall St. Journal. May help you with your next opinion.

[hrbuckley]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

I agree with you.

Argon - there is an article on RIM in today's Wall St. Journal. May help you with your next opinion.

Good article. Perhaps too many unattributed statements with no comment from the principles but it does seem to jive very well with the view from outside.

[smoothadmin]

To be honest I think RIM should make the development kit cost attractive to developers to really get the apps rolling. I won't agree if RIM decides to release the Andrio player half completed, what I am seeing that's being said it looks to almost have the same functionality as the beta player that came out a couple of months ago.

They really need to think of their investors as well, if they continue to release crap their investors will just walk away and if they piss the wrong ones off (the ones who have a lot of shares) we could see RIM collapse in a day, just like what happen to Commodore back in the 80's (was it?).

So they have to walk the fine line and keep everyone happy or face litigators.

A.

Ps. I hope they pull it off as I really don't want to start using something that isn't as secure as RIM.

[smoothadmin]

Brian Blair makes a few good points about how RIM has handled the Playbook relations. He has a Playbook himself which is more a cup coaster than anything.

Blair Says Research In Motion Should `Killxxx39; PlayBook - YouTube

[hrbuckley]

He's full of sh*t. He says that QNX will need a quad core processor to run on a smart phone. The PlayBook, running QNX, has a dual core processor which does exist in serveral handsets already.

Also he starts the interview repeating the old complaint that the PB shipped without native email support, but finishes saying "...RIM still takes the point this is about email, but its not about email..."

He does make a vew good points, but his technical errors and self contradiction make his conclusions questionable IMO.

[jimn367]

There is some legitimacy to the discussion of what will define a "good price" for a Playbook.

I believe HP saw the Kindle Fire and ipad writing on the wall and just decided the didn't have any content to compete. Both of the devices have tight ties into a content ecosystem, and that apeears to be the formula for success. In this regards Amazon is going to make a big splash, especially with Amazon Prime bringing cloud storage and free media to the table.

RIM needs to have a strategy of the Playbook being a hook that keeps people getting Blackberry phones. RIM should be in the 'buying-in' mode, because they need to change the trajectory of their whole product line. They need content, content, content. In order to entice me to wait for the content they need to buy me in. Right now a real (and pretty much the only) discriminator with the Playbook is the bridge for those carrying a corporate Blackberry.

With the Fire going for $199 RIM cannot simply match price, they must BEAT it. They need to be willing to buy me into the RIM family deeper. With nothing else to offer, they must bring price to the table. The market has proven that people do not buy tablets with a PC "spec sheet" mentality, it is a content mentality.

[ZombieBerry]

Originally Posted by jimn367

There is some legitimacy to the discussion of what will define a "good price" for a Playbook.

I believe HP saw the Kindle Fire and ipad writing on the wall and just decided the didn't have any content to compete. Both of the devices have tight ties into a content ecosystem, and that apeears to be the formula for success. In this regards Amazon is going to make a big splash, especially with Amazon Prime bringing cloud storage and free media to the table.

RIM needs to have a strategy of the Playbook being a hook that keeps people getting Blackberry phones. RIM should be in the 'buying-in' mode, because they need to change the trajectory of their whole product line. They need content, content, content. In order to entice me to wait for the content they need to buy me in. Right now a real (and pretty much the only) discriminator with the Playbook is the bridge for those carrying a corporate Blackberry.

With the Fire going for $199 RIM cannot simply match price, they must BEAT it. They need to be willing to buy me into the RIM family deeper. With nothing else to offer, they must bring price to the table. The market has proven that people do not buy tablets with a PC "spec sheet" mentality, it is a content mentality.

Fire has nothing to do with the PlayBook. The PB will never be less than 199. They aren't even in the same market as iPad/PB. The Fire is a low end tablet used to get content, that's it. How much could you store on 8GB of space. I bought a backpack that came with a 16GB USB drive. If you want more content, then fine. Only you can define your own needs. I know a few who have both and use them very differently.
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