[tprime]

Here is what I think. RIM did not intend to have native email on the playbook. They figured you could go through browser (like on a computer) or through bb bridge if you have a blackberry. i think when they got so much negative feedback they started developing it for playbook. So in essence they really are not slow (afterall hasnt mobile email been their bread and butter) but rather they are reactive which is a good thing.

So sometimes slowness is relative to point of view.

[DaNomadicOne]

Things do take time. I've posted before that I'd rather have things done right and released a bit late than full of issues and released early.

Up to now, RIM has been both late and full of issues. Let's hope (always hoping, aren't we?) that they finally turn the page. It's a huge paradigm shift for a large set-in-it's-ways company like RIM to undertake in a short time.

They have made a few baby steps. I think we'll know if that will translate into new standards within the next 12 - 18 months, maybe sooner. An eternity in the tech world.

The other difference between the start of OS X / Android and now - the competition and speed of advancement in the mobile tech arena has gotten exponentially hotter and faster. If it was RIM and Apple that were releasing cutting edge, in-demand devices and Android was just starting today, Android wouldn't have the luxury of taking years to get on the map.

Knowledge is music to the techie masses....

Patience is virtue but many see 3 days later as a sign of death....

[kb5zht]

RIM is SLOW, shortly after Palm announced it's foleo product that never really shipped, RIM let it leak that they were working on a similar device, if remember correctly it too was going to have a B&W screen!

The Official HP Palm Blog: A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers

So Palm killed off the foleo in 2007 as it was going down in flames losing palm's handset market share to the stalwarts like RIM, Moto and even MS at the time... It now intends to ship it's webOS tablet in the Fall of 2011, only able to achieve this with HP's cash. 4 years and a LOT of transition.

The only scary part of all of this is these could be RIM's headlines in the future if they don't get of their *ss's and start innovating rather than following.

Hopefully Torch 2 was not announced at WES because there will be a surprise...hopefully like, that 1.2 processor is actually a DUAL CORE on 4G. Otherwise they will still be a year behind the flagship products being offered by the competition.

Innovate or die!

You will catch flack for daring to say this but you are right in my opinion. Even the fanboi bloggers are now saying rim was arrogant and stubborn in waiting so long and thus fell behind. Only the blindest AND most uninformed still say there is nothing wrong with rim's business model.

I would suggest one other thing.... Motorola and all other companies using android wouldnt be where they are at now if rim had not have sat back on their laurels. I strongly believe that had rim simply continued to innovate years ago including aquiring qnx and continued to update their hardware instead of ignoring what was happening their stock would not have plunged in value, they would not have lost and continue to this day to lose market share and would not be needing to revise their revenue forecasts down.

Okay they ARE on the right track now but they still need to learn staying in grannie mode doesnt cut it. Just because a race car driver shows up to the right track doesnt mean he wins; he still has to outdrive the other racers. Finally announcing new phones that have competitive specs and features is nice but following it up with "oh but they are delayed" does not cut it folks. You may as well be promising the moon for all the good that does.

Tic tock, rim.

[moltenfire]

PlayBook should have minimally been 90-95% complete at launch and blown people away (and not just existing BlackBerry fans - but the tech buying public). Make them hungry. Then, when you are pleased with the first QNX phone internally (when it reaches 90% of concept expectations, maybe some kind of user impression studies passed, and the go ahead for manufacturing is imminent), schedule a "big announcement". Boom. Instant demand.

Unfortunately this only works if you're the first mover. Apple does this regularly (iPad 1, iPhone 1) but if RIM were to do it with the PlayBook, by the time the PB is released the iPad 3 would be announced and the user expectations would have moved.

[kb5zht]

Unfortunately this only works if you're the first mover. Apple does this regularly (iPad 1, iPhone 1) but if RIM were to do it with the PlayBook, by the time the PB is released the iPad 3 would be announced and the user expectations would have moved.

I concur.

You only have the luxury of "taking time to perfect" if u r first out and a year or more ahead of the competition (iphone 1).

If u are trying to play catch up, u wont have that grace period. Sorry but i didnt make the rules. The xoom was made with the idea of competing with the ipad and also beating rim to the market with a high resolution, large memory dual core processor. It flopped big time. Huge.

[royceberry]

Sizs matters, and the smaller profile of PB coupled with the great looking [and fast] interface has already earned it a place in the market.
It is no longer a comparison to Ipad, but more a choice of which device physically suits you better.

I want to use the Ipad, but would rather CARRY a PB.
I admit that I am concerned about the lack of USE when I don't have my phone next to me, and browser issues in the year 2011 is a bit odd.

If RIM has security issues with native email, then they should stand up and say so. Everyone can understand and accept that.

[sportline]

qnx will appears ordinary when webos touchpad released next month. talking about future proof. rim better install bb6 to pb, at least its functional and working well in torch. with 4000 apps.

[samab]

qnx will appears ordinary when webos touchpad released next month. talking about future proof. rim better install bb6 to pb, at least its functional and working well in torch. with 4000 apps.

Future proof means that all the plumbings are done correctly.

No mobile OS will have QNX's multitasking --- simply because QNX is a RTOS. Android, iOS and WebOS will need to yank out their general purpose kernel and put in a realtime kernel --- which they are not going to do. So all you will ever see in the multitasking area --- is improvements like Android 3.1, instead of having the last 5 apps in the multitasking "selection", they got a scrolling selection list. They can't play videos in the background --- because it would stutter in the background. That is something that these other mobile OS'es will just have to live with.

[sportline]

Future proof means that all the plumbings are done correctly.

No mobile OS will have QNX's multitasking --- simply because QNX is a RTOS. Android, iOS and WebOS will need to yank out their general purpose kernel and put in a realtime kernel --- which they are not going to do. So all you will ever see in the multitasking area --- is improvements like Android 3.1, instead of having the last 5 apps in the multitasking "selection", they got a scrolling selection list. They can't play videos in the background --- because it would stutter in the background. That is something that these other mobile OS'es will just have to live with.

so much for technicalities - true multitasking or not etc. user expects usability, reliability and consistent experience. get too smart and here we are with memory leaks and so forth. i believe even the flash is pretty much useless except for video, and unless you got very good connection (wifi minimum). and then (accidentally) clicking on ads.
so you may be pushing something which the users don't want, don't care, or don;t know if it's there at all.

[samab]

so much for technicalities - true multitasking or not etc. user expects usability, reliability and consistent experience. get too smart and here we are with memory leaks and so forth. i believe even the flash is pretty much useless except for video, and unless you got very good connection (wifi minimum). and then (accidentally) clicking on ads.
so you may be pushing something which the users don't want, don't care, or don;t know if it's there at all.

It's nothing to do with getting "too smart".

It has to do with RIM still adding codes and (often essential) features into the Playbook --- of course there are going to be memory leaks all over the place.

If has to do with most of the memory leaks coming from the browser (an app that has a moving goalpost on HTML5 specs being constantly changing)--- which is not written by the QNX people, but written by the Torch group (who are not going to be too familiar with the QNX tools).