[Yankee495]

I agree the marketing might have been a failure but as a device it rocks and is improving and will continue. Of course I could come up with 10 completely different failures to knock everyone one of them off the list.

Biggest Tech Failures of The Last 10+ Years - TechSpot Guides

[triplealiali]

just wow, talk about uneducated reporting. at the very least, how can you call android tablets failures?

[Yankee495]

just wow, talk about uneducated reporting. at the very least, how can you call android tablets failures?

Yeah, I agree with that too.

[pacoman03]

Seems a bit premature, at least as to the PB and Android tablets.

[Zildjian71]

Just following Geller's lead...creating false disaster to sell ad space. I can think of a big O daytime TV show that started this trend in the media...

[costas1966]

OMG....I though this was a joke...the writer of that article is a complete moron...wow. Just. Wow.

[sportline]

i wouldn't read anything with the word FAIL on it. waste of time. most likely written by fanboys, or some genius boy from under the bed.

[howarmat]

apples market share is down to under 65% i think now, most of those are android tablets and even the PB has made a small impact in sales. Sure its not much but they have made a "dent" since apple used to have 90% of the marketshare

[kbz1960]

I guess if you ain't apple you ain't nuttin.

[husainpatan]

The author was out of his mind for sure!!
Had put the likes of ngage, playbook With what! ..Windows ME.

[berryaddict338]

just wow, talk about uneducated reporting. at the very least, how can you call android tablets failures?

Clearly whoever wrote this is just a apple fan boy, they are many of them. Yesterday they even got the nerves of trying to create doubt on the galaxy s3, when they did unveiled a amazing phone yesterday, s3 even got the amazing pictures feature bb 10 is planning to have with his phones. Also a great screen display, 4.8, ice cream sandwich out of the box. Those apple fan boys are so jealous knowing apple now really need to step up to the plate if want to dethrone Samsung. The same will happen if bb 10 deliver an amazing experience phone, this fan boys will be pissing his pants and they will try to create doub

[trsbbs]

RIM had to slash the prices and take millions of write offs on the PB to get it off the shelves.

Yes, I would list it as such.

Noobs needs to understand the launch and its terrible reception. It was bad and has taken a year to almost have the features it should of had at launch.

Tim

Sent from my BlackBerry

[brucep1]

It all depends on how you define success. If success = profits, then yes, every tablet except Apple's have been failures.

[NakedPaulToast]

As much as I hate to say this about the PlayBook, perhaps it should be on that tech fail list.

Last night while channel surfing between the hockey and baseball games I saw countless iPad commercials, a Sony tablet commercial and an Amazon Fire commercial.

Since last November, when I bought two PlayBooks, how many PlayBook commercials have I seen on TV? None.

No hardware comes close to the PB at their price points of $199 - $299, and comparative hardware of competing tablets is typically 50-100% more. So why isn't RIM getting the word out. I've see quite a few BB phone commercials, so where's the PB commercials.

When they dropped the prices that was an excellent opportunity to market the PlayBooks excellent value. RIM didn't.

When they moved to OS 2.0 that was another opportunity for a marketing blitz. I didn't see one. All I've seen by RIM is a bunch of yellow stickers on the PlayBook display models in BestBuy saying something about the new PlayBook 2.0.

So, yeah, PlayBook probably deserves to be on the list, RIM put it there.

[ungibbed]

While the PlayBook has gotten a bad reputation from it's launch, despite those setbacks I've still been able to garner attention to it without even knowing. Of the many places I've taken it from my bank to McDonalds of all places, someone would notice it. Me browsing the web bridged with my Bold 9700 before the 2.0 OS release.

The largest of these interests were it's practical size and ease of use with the convertible case. The other times was when I would capture full 1080p video with stereo audio in a world of "fruit themed" products that were far more expensive and limited with awful cameras during the PlayBook's release.

RIM made huge stride with the 2.0 release addressing nearly every fault of the PB and improving it in major ways with a far improved keyboard and addressing the issues of making it a "complete" product for those who don't own a BlackBerry smartphone.

The only changes I could ever think of wanting on the PlayBook is a 720p screen to match the upcoming BB 10 phones and the graphics hardware to handle the increase of pixels, the other would be adding autofocus ability to both front and rear cameras (with a MP boost to the rear and a LED flash).

One pipe dream though remains and that is for the PlayBook to get the software support that we are still feeling the hurt without native apps. Netflix, Skype, Xfinity, and many others including games that are on iOS and Android I don't want to go through the hassle of sideloading converted .bar files which of many are pirated full versions of Android games or other apps.

If we as a community want that software support, buy from the app world and with hope, we may see a flood of even more great apps to come in the days ahead.

I love my PlayBook, I use it almost daily for reference, web surfing, Pandora, and paid a lot for what I have on it. Nearly every Gameloft title, Dead Space from EA (get this game, best tablet gaming experience regardless if you're using an iPad or buy it for the PlayBook) and many other games and utilities.

One of the best apps is completely free and I'm sure most of us here already have it installed on our 'Berry or both. The app? Poynt... Best reference hub ever!

Long story short, the PlayBook is what we make of it and how we choose to use it or shelve it for something else. In the end, it's the user base that will make or break it. Sure there are naysayers and fanboys and tablet wars here but as consumers or developers, we speak with our wallets.

To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

[Hamp]

I skimmed through the article out of curiosity, and I kept seeing the word "fail" and it's variants used A LOT. Really? The author wrote a tech blog article on the "worst of", published it online for all to see and he comes across sounding like some immature, uneducated kid who spends all his time playing video games and hacking the underworld from his sci-fi/fantasy overly-decorated 'command center' of a room. LMBO!

i wouldn't read anything with the word FAIL on it. waste of time. most likely written by fanboys, or some genius boy from under the bed.

[OneArseneWenger]

It is time to do a top 10 media failures contest.

[Yankee495]

It is time to do a top 10 media failures contest.

You better raise that number to at least 100 because anyone of us can name 10. So, to avoid an argument this would make room for most of the people who got voted onto the list.

[triplealiali]

Yeah, I agree with that too.

Not to go too off topic, but sorry for Mariano Rivera As a jays fan, it's still sad.

[Yemson]

That is the problem with blogs and "news" sites around the internet. While there is still people studying journalism to be real journalists, almost anyone with an oppinion about something can go and write "real" articles. Oppinions become facts, facts are only shown where it suits the "news", and interviews are interpeted as needed by the writer.
This is the time when real journalism has died.

[SK122387]

What a dumb article, to lump all the tablets that aren't an iPad into the Failure category. What about Apple TV? I've had my PlayBook for almost a year now, and not once have it felt like it lacks "basic functionality." "mismanagement" is another thing, as I agree that the PlayBook should have been billed as an accessory to the BlackBerry phone at first, seeing as it did not independently have the two things people associate with BlackBerry: email or BBM.

But for someone who has a BlackBerry and couldn't care less about Netflix or Skype, I'd argue that the PlayBook is very functional, and has been since launch. App World has made huge strides in the last few months, especially since OS2 was launched.

In the last two weeks, I've brought my PlayBook with me and of course they ask if it's "some sort of iPad." I don't blame them though, because I haven't seen a PlayBook commercial in literally almost a YEAR. Without going into huge detail and sounding like a rabid fanatic, I explained to one person how the PlayBook bridges to my phone, and he said that a feature like that, saving people money, is a huge deal.

So did the second guy I talked to at a car shop. I was waiting for my windows to be tinted and was playing Angry Birds and he asked what I was using, and I showed him it was a BlackBerry product. He had never heard of it,but thought it was cool that I didn't have to pay for a separate data plan, and could be on the Internet and email.

In today's times, where some people don't have as much money as they used to, to be able to afford an extra data plan, the Bridge would be a huge draw. If you're in dire financial straights, you probably shouldn't be buying a tablet, but people buy things that make them happy and that are "in." tablets are in, and RIM is missing a whole lot of sales of the PlayBook by not advertising it and clearly showing how the Bridge feature works and now works really well, while also saving people from paying wireless carriers more than they already do.

[FSeverino]

Something you have to take into consideration is that bc android is used on A LOT of tablets that means there is no control over the market for google.

For example, when I was in teachers college I needed a touch screen tab for one of the projects/ideas I wanted to put into motion. I WAS NOT going to spend any crazy amount for this project so I bought a $100 android tablet from a factory store and it did the job great... but that is all it did. Internet connection was iffy at best, it was clunky and had support for an old version of android.

I dont think it is fair to say ALL android tabs fail... but I WOULD SAY that the majority of them do, only because there are very few being made from companies that know what they are doing, and the others are always outdated and 'budget' devices.

[triplealiali]

If Google made a "Chrome Tablet" (Google's own tablet) that would certainly be something to look forward to!

[jesus marion joseph]

I don't consider my self a fanboy, but every time someone notices my playbook and asks about it they're amazed at the fact that I can surf the web without a wifi signal through the phone, the hi def video and the compact size. Blackberry definitely missed a huge opportunity with the playbook. Water under the bridge at this point I guess.

[aneftp]

apples market share is down to under 65% i think now, most of those are android tablets and even the PB has made a small impact in sales. Sure its not much but they have made a "dent" since apple used to have 90% of the marketshare

I believe with the new iPad is back up to well over 80% of tablet shares "sold".

Shipped vs sold are very tricky stats that can be easily manipulated.

Anyways. Reports also stated that the kindle at $199. The kindle fire's shares tanked from 16% all the way down to 4% after the holidays.

Basically everyone is fighting for scraps in the tablet market behind the iPad.

RIM cannot make any money at the $199 price point. They have written offen millions already. RIM made a horrible mistake by trying to enter the tablet market at the same price point as the market leader. Plus add in the software was not complete for apart an entire year put the Playbook at a significant disadvantage.

It's an uphill battle for RIM. I believe windows 8 tablets will eventually succeed whereas Android and Playbook could not against Apple.

I liked the playbook and it's potential. Owned it for 6 months. (September-March). But playbook has only a limited niche market at present time. Mainly appealing to blackberry users or those looking for value in the $199-299 tablet market. RIM just cannot make a profit at those price points.

And it's just not RIM. Samsung quietly released their new tablets and no one hardly notices it either. Microsoft will have the marketing and money to throw its weight at Apple along with providing a unified structure.