[Chrisy]

I'm going to Best Buy today. I'll check out the situation. I may or may not return with a PlayBook.

[bounce007]

Visited my local Best Buy store today. Scores of tablets on display and not one Playbook. I go over to the phone section where there are approxomately 75 phones on display (mostly Androids), and I count four Blackberries. One 9900 series BB on display. How can Blackberry sell Playbooks and Phones with retailers acting like this? Totally disgusting.
I have nothing against people buying competing products, but at least represent Blackberry in your stores.

I don't think BestBuy is anti-BlackBerry, they are just not pro-BlackBerry

[brucep1]

prior to buying my new pp i had walked into a best buy for some feedback. those guys tried everything in there power to tell me how bad the product is, it will have no support in the near future, they are droping the product so dont buy it they suggested.
I bought it due in large from this site and we have all three here at home. \the wife has both ipads 1 and 2 and she set up my pp and she loves it. Other than the amount of apps its a gem.

paid for the playbook $400.00
got the covers for $19.00
new case for it $ 60.00
the fact that best buy staff cant afford it ............... priceless.

I'm not sure what a PP is but I assume you mean PlayBook.

I would return it immediately and wait for Black Friday. You would save a lot of money (possibly over 200, depedning on model). You spent way too much money.

[brucep1]

When I sold my Playbook, I had to delete like a dozen apps because it was just too embarrassing to have them on there when showing the device. What are these great apps? Was there a revolution in Playbook App quality? All I can recall are e-books, cookbooks, offline map/gps, and cheap knockoffs of iPhone apps/games in the tradition of fake Gucci handbags being sold out of a car trunk. Please don't list games, the EA games showing up on the PB now have been on other platforms (including phones/MP3 players) for a year or more.

Fart apps have now infected App World as well..I think that is what he was referring to for great apps daily

[Moonbase0ne]

I think part of it may be that you apparently need a Blackberry phone in order to take full advantage of a Playbook. And, seeing as there are a lot of people going over to other platforms, maybe they are getting the tablets that work well with those platforms.

I have been into Best Buy a few times in the last few months and I see about 5 Blackberry phones on display, but I have honestly never seen anyone looking at them. One was suggested to me once by a Best Buy employee but I told her I was looking a cheap, off contract, dumb phone for my niece.

But, aside from that, why would anyone expect any retailer to try to push a product that I not selling well over the products that are selling well? I am sure that if the PB was selling well they would order more and try to see more. If the PB isn't selling well, which it seems it isn't, do you blame Best Buy, office Depot, Target, Walmart, Fry's, TigerDirect, etc..??????

An why doesn't RIM have representative who go out to various stores an check on Blackberry an Playbook displays? If they do, then maybe they aren't being thorough enough.

Also, RIM needs to improve their marketing for the Playbook. And STOP making promises they can't keep. Period.


"War Is All We Know"

[farside33]

The lack of retailer's support for the PB is 99% RIM's fault and 1% the retailer's fault.
The retailer's fault is not properly training their staff on the tasks that the PB can do now, and on how to properly demo it.

RIM delivered a "half baked" platform. They did not properly market it for what it is, but for what it will be. They basically provided very little to no marketing support for the retailers (only at launch in April). RIM has missed every date (whether directly stated or interpreted) regarding PB feature enhancements. While many really good games are now being delivered on AppWorld, there is still a void of the "Professional" apps that many of us are still waiting for.

I only have one retailer in the area where I live. The sales staff are mostly college kids from the local engineering college, and are usually very knowledgeable on most hardware platforms. When I bought my last PB for my wife in August during the offload inventory sale, I had a chance to discuss the PB with the sales associate. They were each given a tablet of each type that the store carried and were instructed to learn how to demo them to potential customers. He was very knowledgeable with the PB and stated that he used the CrackBerry forums for a lot of his leaning on the PB. They have received a total of 64 PB units to sell (since April - Small town). Of those 64 sold 48 were returned. A few were because of defective screens. But most were due to customers being unhappy with the device, either due to lack of research (impulse buy) or due to lack of functionality (Apps). Of the 16 units that were not returned 3 of them were my from my purchases.

So, if 75% of a product sold is returned then it makes sense why most retailers are not treating the PB like other devices. I do not know what the return rate is on other tablets (forgot to ask him), nor do I know what the return rate is for the PB in other markets.

RIM has a lot more to do than just finish OS 2.0. They also need to step up their marketing and retail channel support programs, continue to ramp up developer tools and relations, and work with large vendors to supply the Apps we are waiting for.

[ultra07]

It all depends on the Best Buy store. I wrote about the one in Paducah, Ky. They are the worst of the 5 that are within a hour drive from my home. They only push the Ipad. They had a few dead Android tablets and a dead PB! Someone had unplugged the charging cord on the PB and not one sales person had bothered to plug it back in. I plugged it back in and it came to life.

[FF22]

Many of us still want to know how you batch delete in the Bridge Email.

Now i get it, the checkbox icon, Thanks!

Ah - thanks for the hint. So that icon to the right of the Magnifying Glass allows batch delete. Tap it and boxes show up next to each email and you can check (tap) the ones you want and then act on that group!

[dagerlach]

I really wouldn't blame Best Buy unless they are not living up to the retail agreement they signed with RIM. If RIM wants better sales at Best Buy they have so many different avenues they can pursue such as purchasing more retail space, providing retail staff training, as well as advertising. It is apparent that RIM is not spending much money on marketing and retail sales with Best Buy based on store observations. At this point, I wouldn't either. It's not ready for mass-marketing. We have been beta testing a product at our expense....ah, but I have digressed.

Most important, the Playbook is not user friendly for your average customer to pick up and use. The unique gestures are great, but a huge sales detraction. Most people think the device is broken because it doesn't work like a Apple or Android product. The device should have a simple instruction that the device sits on that explains the gestures. It's explained by a sales representative easily, but how many people slip by.

Unfortunately, the Playbook is just not ready for a big marketing push. Maybe when 2.0 comes out. Let's hope!

[jvictor77]

I own a BB playbook and phone.

As mentioned time and time again in these forums... the bridged email is so lacking it is incredible.

The lack of a file system (for attachments) makes RIM look like amateurs. It is such a basic fail that it is systematic of the OS pretty much as a whole.

Rich Text - fail

Spelling mentioned a million times before - fail

UI is so basic for a 'we have super awesome swipe gestures' that I refuse to use bridge mail as I am unable to batch delete or process mail.

You know what I'm so over listening to people defend how sweet the bridge is... it does nothing outlook didn't do 10 years ago, it slows me down and I mistakenly purchased a 'Professional Grade Lie'.

There are several good apps for you to be able to access the file system. As for batch delete - do your research before you spout.

[Chrisy]

Just back from Best Buy. The PlayBook was at the end of the tablet row, clean and in working order. Looked nice.

They did not have the 9930 or 9900 though.

[jas99_ca]

prior to buying my new pp i had walked into a best buy for some feedback. those guys tried everything in there power to tell me how bad the product is, it will have no support in the near future, they are droping the product so dont buy it they suggested.
I bought it due in large from this site and we have all three here at home. \the wife has both ipads 1 and 2 and she set up my pp and she loves it. Other than the amount of apps its a gem.

paid for the playbook $400.00
got the covers for $19.00
new case for it $ 60.00
the fact that best buy staff cant afford it ............... priceless.

As a best buy employee I take great offence to this post.

I bought my playbook on day one.
32GB Playbook - $599
Playbook Case - $49.99
Charging Dock - 69.99

Where u get your information that best buy employees can't afford "fancy" electronic gadgets is well beyond me.

With reguards to the playbooks being on display and working properly. I see apple reps in my store every other day making sure that the iphones, ipads and whatever other iproducts are in working order. I see a blackberry rep once every Two months at most. This no doubt affects their displays and making sure that the products are in proper working order. Also apple products do create more rev without a doubt. However RIM products have a higher margin and therefore make more profit for the store. At my store all iproducts android products and blackberry products are working and displayed and sold equally. Not sure what's going on in other stores though.

Btw not sure what a PP is OP. But usually the short form for the playbook is PB. Just for future posts.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Chrisy]

Those of us with lower paying jobs can still afford nice stuff. Just takes us longer, and we are more csreful with our money. Plus we budget better!

[qingyuank]

retail outlets don't owe RIM anything. they sell to survive. you can't blame them if consumers are going to walk out if they walk into a store full of blackberries; or consumers going to the store next door because the android and ios section is packed with people just because the store decided to leave blackberry some space (which is empty).

blame rim if you must.

[entimp]

There are several good apps for you to be able to access the file system. As for batch delete - do your research before you spout.

If I were not so over this nonsense junk pretending to be a tablet... I would have found that kinda funny.

So your suggesting that 'I don't spout' because RIM neglected to include a file system or deliberately designed the Bridge Email App to ignore the file system... either way it is laughable.

I find it so hard to imagine how you all tolerate such nonsense from a seasoned tech company.

I also find it funny how you suggest that I buy a 3rd party app for something that should be part n parcel of every single app that needs access to stored files.

Besides... you are wrong... show me an app that works with bridged email to restore a sensible file/directory structure so I can find files amongst nearly a 1000.

The Playbook is a fail. The more people complain about it one of two things will happen.

They will sell less and contribute to the decline in the company value or two RIM get their act together and start pushing fixes NOW! Patch it bit by bit and start showing that you give one about all the folk that wasted their money on the Blackberry DS.

Fix the spellcheck... patch it!
Fix the file system... patch it!
Rinse n Repeat