[Skeevecr]

i am assume this gets properly implemented in iOS 5 but we will see

Unfortunately it still won't solve the problem you get when downloading anything using a 3rd party app where it will at best pause and probably stop totally if you switch to another app, now I do like my ipad as its the best compromise of weight and size for comics and magazines, but for something so magical it does have some stupid limitations.

[howarmat]

Unfortunately it still won't solve the problem you get when downloading anything using a 3rd party app where it will at best pause and probably stop totally if you switch to another app, now I do like my ipad as its the best compromise of weight and size for comics and magazines, but for something so magical it does have some stupid limitations.

thats what i am saying, they need to properly implement multitasking into the OS so all apps would work correctly.

[Skeevecr]

thats what i am saying, they need to properly implement multitasking into the OS so all apps would work correctly.

Ah, I thought you just meant improving the ui side of things since we have already been told how great their version of multitasking is by the almighty Jobs so anyone thinking it sucks must simply downloading it the wrong way.

[elgolfman]

RIM is embedded in the business world and I don't see it going anywhere soon. Apple hasn't even attempted to touch that market because they don't need to and it's not worth the cost. Google and MS haven't really found a spot but I don't see them making the push either.

My Co. used to be 100% Blackberry. Now it is about 50%, with the other fifty split between Android and Apple. I see this trend continuing.

[MartyMcfly]

RIM is embedded in the business world and I don't see it going anywhere soon. Apple hasn't even attempted to touch that market because they don't need to and it's not worth the cost. Google and MS haven't really found a spot but I don't see them making the push either.

But still, BlackBerry sales are up huge. I don't know why the stock is dropping, but honestly, I don't think it'll go anywhere but up (wish I had some cash, it would be a good time to buy).

There are tons of articles out there speaking on ios/androind infritrating the corporate sector...

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[snuci]

I would guess that the Playbook consumer launch will definitely be "lukewarm". Have you seen a Playbook commercial? I couldn't watch 10 minutes of TV without seeing a Torch commercial when it was being launched. How about the media launch road show? Where is that this time?

It is clearly being launched at the enterprise. I got en email from a friend who has a friend (I know, seems kinda sketchy) that got a visit from RIM that did a whole marketing presentation on the Playbook. I'm certain they weren't the only ones. Contrary to other competitors demographic (mainly the consumer space), RIM is targeting the Playbook at the Enterprise. They have said it time and again. Take a look at the presentation given at that demo (along with a couple other ones) at BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet for Business Do you see one screen shot with Need for Speed in it?

Are you gong to see lineups on April 19? No. Will they sell a ton to their targeted demographic? Yes. Let's not forget that the enterprise didn't have a choice before in tablets. Where RIM messed up in their business plan was that they ignored the consumer for a long time. I'm not sure why they didn't see it but they didn't realize the same enterprise user was also a consumer in off-hours and their smartphones didn't cut it for both. The iPhone clearly had an edge and it started to infiltrate the enteprise.

If the enterprise user hasn't been totally lost, they've got a shot. I think that the Playbook is the devise that is supposed to be compelling both in business and for personal use. It just hasn't been heavily targeted at consumers yet. Why? I'm not really sure but you can bet that this isn't over yet. If all goes well, this will carry over directly to their smartphones. If not, they may have to make some tweaks if they haven't gone too far off the mark already.

You can see why the analysts are not too enamored with RIM and why the outlook is super important. My opinion is that they will do okay but they really need to push the consumer side or they will have a serious uphill battle that they can't climb.

Just my opinion.

[BlackStormRising]

I don't think the device needs a "consumer launch". It needs to be firmly planted and rooted in the enterprise space. Once that happens it can spread like a weed into the consumer space. That's kind of how their phones broke into the consumer market. They sure didn't make any attempt to design a new "consumer friendly" phone from the ground up. There's more than one approach to bringing a product to market. At least anyone who wants one will be able to get one. The iPad2 launched in Canada now and there is no demo model to play with at my nearest Future-shop, and only one demo unit at the closest Best-Buy. It's hard to get near it.

[sandmanfvr]

Like I said in another thread, I tried to prebuy at bestbuy and my bestbuy wasn't doing it in store, but the woman that was helping me didn't know about the playbook (RIM's fault) and was EXCITED as she loved blackberries. I told her about it and it bridges with you blackberry to give you email and such and she was impressed. So right there RIM was ignoring a general, non geek, user and if I hadn't told her about it, she might not have seen much about it until bestbuy got playbooks. What if she didn't work in a tech store? Might not have known about the playbook and a lost sale.

RIM needs to get advertisements on the tv so show consumers it is coming, even if it is just over 3 weeks to launch.

[kbz1960]

Not hard to figure out. No advertisement from RIM because the carriers do the adv. for them, this is wifi only right now so no carrier adv. money.

[sandmanfvr]

There are pure blackberry commercials that don't have carriers tied to them and RIM needs a couple for the playbook.

Why not put this one, done by RIM on the tv:

[livejam]

I think/hope RIM will start putting tv ads up once baseball season starts, since they have been major sponsors of MLB the past couple of years.

Season starts 3/31...maybe thats what they meant by Q1 release?

[kbz1960]

There are pure blackberry commercials that don't have carriers tied to them and RIM needs a couple for the playbook.

Why not put this one, done by RIM on the tv:

That would work but will they do it?

[BlackStormRising]

There are pure blackberry commercials that don't have carriers tied to them and RIM needs a couple for the playbook.

Why not put this one, done by RIM on the tv:

That sure looks like a prospective TV commercial.

[snuci]

She's putting her desk in her purse. That would be a business commercial. This one might be a little more consumer friendly and is pretty good.


YouTube - Step it Up: BlackBerry PlayBook

[sandmanfvr]

Put all of them on tv, more to show.

[Sonic77]

How does selling at Walmart, Costco, Chapters and calling the product a Playbook lead people to believe its targeted at the enterprise?

[rjshahan]

The PlayBook launch is still 3+ weeks away. I would imagine we would start seeing more PlayBook marketing once we get into April and closer to 4/19.

Advertising to the non-techy consumer before this would be pre-mature as they would likely forget about the device. Tech is, by definition, not the top thing on their mind.

As for the techie consumers, we have had 6months of PlayBook porn supplied by RIM, or filmed at various trade shows and conferences. Is it working? Theres a 17 page thread on who has already pre-ordered their devices.

Marketing to the enterprise is very different. Have you ever seen a Cisco spot showing off the latest router? Or an Oracle spot touting the latest and greatest database architectures? Most advertisements by these companies are focused on putting out the brand name and setting the brand image.

From reports on this forum RIM has been marketing to the enterprise by having 1 on 1 meetings with key customers and touting the devices. I would expect these companies would order small batches to test out initially (10 -100 PlayBooks) before deciding on larger orders.

These two markets are approached in very different ways. This is why RIM didn't produce their first TV commercial until 2008. This was for the BlackBerry Pearl, the first device with a media player and targeted to the consumer.

[missing_K-W]

Sorry to rain on anyones " negative parade " and to make a comment that stems from the collective enthusiasm

I would like to mention that if the general consumers interest is anything along the lines of.....
CES and MWC, then we should not expect anything less then a sucsess!

The sheer positive energy and enthusiasm in the platform was shocking...even to me a rather optumistic guy!

The look on people faces and eyes was just of "childhood gidiness"

I'm more then just a lil confident it'll turn many heads with a massive wow factor...in the favor of PB's sucsess!

Sorry if I burst anyones bubble

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[zensen]

I expect a big push a week out before the playbook is out. Worldwide advertising won't be seen for a while yet.

I can't say I've seen much advertising on xoom or the samsung tab where I live and with a april release I can already see tech sites getting more and more articles up about it. Its very hard to keep news and anticipation over a few months. All that's needed from them is a more consumer oriented display a week or so out from release. Sure it would be nice to see a campaign before the ipad2 release but it would have been premature since there wasn't really a confirmed date.

People are still giddy over the ipad2 but were seeing stock shortages. So its definitely rims chance to push it hard out there in the next week or so

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[sleepngbear]

People are still giddy over the ipad2 but were seeing stock shortages. So its definitely rims chance to push it hard out there in the next week or so

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Absolutely, this is an opportunity handed to RIM on a silver platter that they need to take advantage of.

Sorry to rain on anyones " negative parade " and to make a comment that stems from the collective enthusiasm

I would like to mention that if the general consumers interest is anything along the lines of.....
CES and MWC, then we should not expect anything less then a sucsess!

The sheer positive energy and enthusiasm in the platform was shocking...even to me a rather optumistic guy!

The look on people faces and eyes was just of "childhood gidiness"

I'm more then just a lil confident it'll turn many heads with a massive wow factor...in the favor of PB's sucsess!

Sorry if I burst anyones bubble

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Heh-heh -- 'rather optimistic'??? I'd hate to see you flat-out excited!

Anyway ... from all the hands-on reviews I've seen, I've yet to see one reviewer come away unimpressed. The only criticisms I've seen have been around RIM being so tight-lipped about it and its release date. Well, half of that cat is out of the bag (does that mean the cat is half in the bag?), and features and functions are slowly leaking out. But that has nothing to do with the capabilities of the device itself. From all I've observed, anyone who's actually had their hands on one is anything from optimistic about its prospects to downright blown away.

As for publicizing, does anyone recall when Apple finally pulled the lid off iPad 2? In case no one can remember that far back, it was two weeks before its release. Before that it was pure speculation and conjecture, and if there's an Apple equivalent to CrackBerry (as if that were possible), I'll bet it it was abuzz with just as much animosity and reviling as this one was. But I digest...

I'll put money on some fairly loud noise on the PlayBook starting right around the first of April or just days thereafter leading up to and following the actual release.

[aab81901]

actually apple is getting into the business world and doing a pretty good job

Can you elaborate on that, Mat?

[snuci]

As for publicizing, does anyone recall when Apple finally pulled the lid off iPad 2? In case no one can remember that far back, it was two weeks before its release. Before that it was pure speculation and conjecture, and if there's an Apple equivalent to CrackBerry (as if that were possible), I'll bet it it was abuzz with just as much animosity and reviling as this one was. But I digest...

Apple didn't announce anything because when you already have an older version of a product, an announcement of a new product literally stops orders for the old one until the new one comes out. With the launch of other tablets, this time period between announcement and launch is critical.

I know that was the case for us with a small order of tablets. We were going to order iPads but we knew the iPad 2 was coming so we didn't order. When the Playbook release date was announced, the iPad 2 order got changed to Playbook pre-orders.

There is no doubt that Apple is amazing at the marketing machine. It was amazing how those who wanted iPads (and didn't know what they did exactly) no longer wanted an iPad 1 but wanted the iPad 2. Well, I directed them to Playbooks (since they all have Blackberries and hooking up/synching our email to iPads is troublesome) and hope that the Blackberry Bridge makes things better. Luckily I got everyone to 6GB plans on Rogers so they should be able to tether trouble free to their Blackberries. I can tell you that eliminating the extra 3G subscription for the iPad or any tablet that is 3/4G is a bonus for us. I killed my iPad subscription last month because I just didn't use it that much, if at all some months.

Companies are starting to realize this, hence it's all up the RIMs execution. If these Playbooks don't go well, it's a wide open field after that.

[i7guy]

Can you elaborate on that, Mat?

Two things:

1. applications written for specific market segments (ie lawyers, hospitals)
2. Somewhat mild acceptance of hooking of IOS to Exchange via activesync.

Blackberry does have some specific market apps, but I don't think as many as IOS. Blackberry is used more of a business communication tool (in the fortune 500 market where the money is), but apple is making slow inroads.

I think QNX phones are just what the doctor ordered.

[snuci]

Two things:
1. applications written for specific market segments (ie lawyers, hospitals)

I have not written any iPhone/iPad apps so I'm not familiar with how a specific app written in-house for a company would be distributed. Are these distributed through the public App Store or are there other means to distribute an app to Company ABC only?

Blackberry does have some specific market apps, but I don't think as many as IOS. Blackberry is used more of a business communication tool (in the fortune 500 market where the money is), but apple is making slow inroads.

I ask the above because Blackberry apps are being written for specific companies that nobody but the company ever sees. Are these calculated in the App count for Blackberry? No. This will continue with QNX as these apps can be side loaded (you can mail them to someone or distribute it by uploading it to the phone) without it ever seeing App World.

It's just a different model, I think, and Im curious if Apple allows this type of distribution. If so, maybe Apples app count is even higher.