Today is the big day for RIM. They are betting the company on the PlayBook tablet, and today it’s available in stores.
I’ll admit that where I live isn’t a hotbed of technology like Silicon Valley, but we know our devices like most other communities in North America. I live in a city of about 450,000 people, so there should be lots of interest in a new tech gadget.
RIM is on an all out blitz to defend its PlayBook tablet after negative reviews began hitting the Web on Wednesday.
Among the major criticisms from reviewers was the lack of a native email client for the PlayBook — a strange omission from the company that made its name on secure email.
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that people are “overplaying one aspect that really isn’t a core element that we’ve seen from our enterprise customers or webmail people.”
Did RIM’s CEO just say that email isn’t a core element of the BlackBerry PlayBook.
I sat last night reading reviews of the RIM PlayBook and wondered what the hell the company was thinking releasing this product. I’d email the company, but they wouldn’t get it, since the PlayBook doesn’t have an email client.
Yes, you read that right. The mobile company that built its name on being the email company doesn’t have an email client on its tablet. That is one of the most asinine decisions I’ve seen of any tech company in a long time.
The only thing that could be worse is if they left their users with no way to do calendaring and contacts too. Yes, you guessed it — you can’t do calendaring and contacts either.
RIM’s PlayBook is due to hit stores next week and the first reviews from the big gadgets sites are in. It doesn’t look good for RIM, so far.
Before we take a look at the reviews, let’s take a quick look at how RIM views the PlayBook.
“The BlackBerry PlayBook is an amazing tablet. The power that we have embedded creates one of the most compelling app experiences available in a mobile computing device today,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.
Okay, there is our starting place. RIM thinks it’s amazing. Now let’s see what the reviewers say. I’ll take a few quotes from the reviews, so I recommend you go to each site and read the full review. Both reviewers had a few positive things to say too.
RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis wasn’t impressed with the way an interview was going with the BBC and terminated the interview.
As soon as the interviewer started asking Lazaridis about security issues with the governments in India and countries in the Middle East, the interview started to fall apart.
“That’s just not fair,” said Lazaridis. First of all, we have no security problems.
Lazaridis went on to explain why he feels people are focused on RIM.
RIM shareholders were probably sitting back with their mouths hanging open yesterday as the interview with the company’s co-CEOs hit the Internet.
RIM is one week away from the release of the PlayBook, a product that could make or break the company, and instead of remaining quiet, the CEOs give an interview. Mistake.
I suppose giving an interview isn’t a bad idea if you are a masterful speaker like Steve Jobs, but if your name is Lazaridis or Balsillie, you should avoid interviews like the plague. In a moment of trying to be helpful, I actually recommended this to RIM a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t listen.
So, what brilliance did we get from RIM? One week away from the PlayBook introduction, what wisdom did the co-CEOs impart on us? Let’s take a look at what Mike “Whine” Lazaridis had to say.
The pressure of not being prepared for the tablet revolution may be catching up with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, as his bitterness shines in a recent interview.
“Why is it that people don’t appreciate our profits? Why is it that people don’t appreciate our growth? Why is it that people don’t appreciate the fact that we spent the last four years going global? Why is it that people don’t appreciate that we have 500 carriers in 170 countries with products in almost 30 languages?,” Lazaridis said in a New York Times interview.
That’s quite a bit of non-appreciation from consumers and market in general, but Lazaridis isn’t that concerned.
Jonathan Geller had a look at the BlackBerry Bold Touch today over at BGR.com. I used the BlackBerry for a couple of years before the iPhone came out — once I made the switch, I never looked back. This one looks a lot like the phone I had years ago, except with a touchscreen.
The BlackBerry Bold Touch also uses a new battery from RIM, so hopefully the addition of a touchscreen to this famous BlackBerry form factor won’t have too much of a negative impact on battery life.
A report on Monday says that RIM’s PlayBook tablet release was delayed because Apple bought all available touch screen displays.
RIM had apparently planned to release the PlayBook sometime in mid-March, but because Apple had already book all the touch panels, the company had to postpone the launch, according to DigiTimes.
Purchasing a product from any company shows a level of trust by the consumer, but how are we supposed to trust a company like RIM.
I had a look at RIM’s executive team over the weekend and was surprised to find the company has three Chief Operating Officers. Of course, we all know they already have two Chief Executive Officers, which adds up to a corporate structural mess.
Seriously, how is the buying public supposed to trust a company that can’t even decide who the hell is running the place? It’s like the hierarchy of the company is a straight horizontal line.
We all knew the iPad was dominant last year. It leads in market share and the mind share of consumers, but what about financially.
I have been waiting for RIM to show the world that one big last thing that would drive the masses to by the PlayBook. That one thing that nobody else has, that will drive everyone crazy. Yesterday, they did it. … Continued
While it runs Research In Motion’s (RIM) QNX operating system, the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will also be able to run apps made for Android. That’s the word from RIM, which announced the new capability on Thursday.
Research In Motion (RIM) announced Tuesday that its long-discussed PlayBook tablet will begin to ship on April 19, 2011, at prices starting at $499.
For the fifth consecutive time, Apple’s iPhone has topped J.D. Power and Associates list of smartphone customer satisfaction.
I know that some people think I’m being mean to RIM, calling them out on not shipping any products and not really having a tablet strategy other than following Apple. I decided to change that and visit RIM.
I have had my share of rants about how RIM has handled its PlayBook introduction and the fact that they can’t seem to ship anything, but the non-existent tablet isn’t the only problem the company has.
I have to congratulate you on the restraint you’ve shown over the past month. You haven’t announced a new version of the PlayBook that isn’t shipping yet, which is a huge step forward for you.
RIM was taken completely taken off guard when Apple’s iPhone became an overnight success, according to a former RIM employee.
It’s always hard to leave your job, especially these days, but it must be difficult to hear that the analysts in your market think your departure is a good thing.
Things really aren’t looking good Microsoft as the company tries to compete in the tablet market. A new report says they won’t have a tablet operating system ready until mid-2012.
RIM on Friday said its chief marketing officer has decided to leave the company.
It’s kind of amusing to see what’s going on in the mobile world these days. HP saying that RIM is imitating its WebOS.
Apple has an internal goal to sell 40 million iPads in 2011 and the company has taken steps to make sure it has enough touch panels to meet those numbers.
Remember the good old days when companies would announce a product and then actually ship something? RIM doesn’t. They seem to think it’s okay to just keep announcing vaporware and not ship anything.
Late last week Nokia and Microsoft formed a partnership, but Microsoft wasn’t the only company Nokia spoke with — they were also in talks with RIM and Google.
It seems really crazy to be talking — or even thinking about — the iPad 3, but here we are.
Research in Motion (RIM) may be trying to drum up interest in its PlayBook tablet, but its efforts haven’t been completely successful.
Even once in a while you read something that literally makes you laugh out loud. It happens to us all — tonight, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber did it to me. The funniest thing about his statement is that it is … Continued
The back-and-forth battles between Apple and RIM are going to be epic soon, if they aren’t already. Today’s rant by RIM co-CEO Jim is another chapter in the battle.