[KOOLWATER]

I experienced the playbook for the 1st time tonight. I've been reading this forum and watching the sales and getting excited but I had never actually held one or gestured through the OS. As I strolled into Wal-Mart for some fish food, I saw it on display in the electronics section. It was completely functional with the demo running. It was under the glass counter so I had to get a sales associate to get it for me.

One word AWESOME. The graphics on that thing is sick man. Display is so clear. I thought the size was gonna be a problem for me but it felt so good in my hands! ITS PERFECT.

I saw the price tag printed on the counter as 499, I asked him about the discounts and of course he knew nothing about it. So I guess info hasn't trickled down yet. I wasn't worried though because I wasn't gonna walk out with it tonight... but soon.... very soon.

As I walked out I thought how in the heyal isn't this tablet selling?! Its amazing!! Thinking back on the display gave me the answer....

The ipad had an entire section to itself and all the other tablets were literally crammed into one little glass box. playbook, xoom, samsung 10.1, acer tabs, and two cheaper ones. Every screen was dark except for the playbook (amazingly) and of course the ipad in its "ipad section" right between the flatscreens and the computers was shining oh so brilliantly with posters and cardboard stands detailing key features and accessories galore. All that leads me to this conclusion, which really isn't any news... RIM MARKETING SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

They are used to carriers doing the heavy lifting in the marketing of BBs. They are simply not ready to fight with Microsoft and Apple in this Marketing game of in store products. Its like they think they can send something to a store and in a couple weeks, they'll be getting calls for more orders. WTH?! Not if no one knows anything about your product bozos!!

How in the world do the BBM loving teenie boppers not know that they can check their BBMs on the playbook's beautiful screen?! Why isn't that popping up on MTV or on facebook or where ever they frequent?!

How do professionals like my wife NOT know that the playbook is the only wifi tablet that can use a phone's data connection seemlesly, and the ipad can't?!

The list goes on and on about what WE know that the world doesn't know about the playbook. Its soooooooo frustrating.

MARKETING, that is the only thing thats gonna right this ship for RIM. Not 2.0, this thing is good enough to sell without 2.0! Not apps either. Rim will never beat apple at the app game. Its just not gonna happen. Too late out the gate. Some psychotic, genius is gonna have to come in and re-brand Blackberry. Someone who is so full of his self that he has to sprinkle his pixidust on every product that comes off the lines and when he does, it creates magical experiences that the consumer "gets". We need a STEVE.

[Economist101]

Someone who is so full of his self that he has to sprinkle his pixidust on every product that comes off the lines and when he does, it creates magical experiences that the consumer "gets". We need a STEVE.

Creating a magical experience that consumers "get" isn't marketing; it's product design. "Marketing" would be the act of describing the experience as "magical."

[blackjack93117]

Thanks for sharing - welcome to Playland.
You're right - its not the playbook itself its the marketing. Shameful.

[howarmat]

the marketing consists of "it has flash" and beyond that its horrible. The missing features sure as **** are not helpful

[kevinnugent]

But, but, but you can play with one in a BIG truck!

[Scrapegoat]

Yep, to their peril, RIM really skimped on the marketing effort/budget!

Unfortunately, I think the lack of marketing had a direct connection to the arrogance of the CEO's and their overexaggerated perception of the "Blackberry" name, not too mention past heavy reliance on carriers doing all the "legwork" .

I do believe they honestly thought that their brand name carries as much buzz as Apple, and that people would buy it simply because it's a "Berry".

Hopefully, the negative reviews, disappointing sales and consumer backlash has forced them to have a MAJOR RETHINK of their marketing strategy, not just for PB and its imminent "relaunch" and future , but also for ALL FUTURE BB PRODUCTS!

Jim and Mike, wake up and smell the coffee, or be totally left behind in the race!

[JeepBB]

I'm a Steve!

It's my given name. Now, what was it you wanted me to do?

Sorry... couldn't resist.

To respond to your OP, I doubt that anyone here would disagree with anything you've said. They would all, I suspect, share your astonishment that this fine piece of hardware (with admitedly immature software) is largely unknown in the marketplace due mainly to RIM's total and utter failure to market the damn thing!

Apple's TV ads for the iPad almost tempted me to go and buy one simply because of all the cool things the 30-second spot showed me that even a talentless type like myself could do with it. I could play guitar, edit video, create world peace, damn... there was apparently nothing I couldn't do with an iPad!

I have also seen a Playbook ad... it was about.... erm... now... erm... it'll come to me in a moment...

I guess the RIM Execs were away the day they held the Marketing 101 course.

[lawguyman]

I think that RIM did a pretty good job of creating a buzz about the Playbook. I know that I was excited about it. The problem is that RIM has consistently failed to deliver on what it said it was going to do.

The Playbook ad campaign was boring and uninteresting. That did not help either.

Ultimately, RIM needs to deliver on its promises and back it up with an aggressive and interesting advertising campaign.

I would keep the profile of the two CEOs as low as possible. One of them can't put a proper sentence together. The other gets steamed and walks out on interviews. Neither are helping the cause.

[MartyMcfly]

I'd rather have native clients, 3g radio, spell check, and a solid app market consisting of productive/fun apps. I hear people complain about the marketing. It's kind of hard to market a tablet that's missing a lot of features.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[steve911]

It's the same for online stores for BestBuy and FutureShop and others. Apple has their own section while all the others are thrown together in a big heap. Is this Apple forcing the stores to do this or are the stores doing this because they know Apple sells?

This to me is unfair competition. How can any other compete against Apple?

[lawguyman]

This to me is unfair competition. How can any other compete against Apple?

Every company has the right to do the things that Apple does or at least to try to do those things.

This is an incredibly tough market. Every company that has tried to go up against Apple in the tablet market has made some pretty big mistakes and it seems that mistakes aren't tolerated.

1. Google: Honeycomb released in a buggy state. The flagship product, Xoom, was clunky. Honeycomb is still a bit of a cluster-f.
2. HP - WebOS released in a buggy state. Not many Apps. CEO change meant HP had no appetite to compete. Implosion results.
3. Microsoft - Win7 stinks on ice for tablets. Win8 is late to the party.
4. RIM - Playbook missing necessary features five months after launch.

Where I come from , you have to knock out the champ to take the title. So far, no one has even put up a credible challenge.

[Economist101]

It's the same for online stores for BestBuy and FutureShop and others. Apple has their own section while all the others are thrown together in a big heap. Is this Apple forcing the stores to do this or are the stores doing this because they know Apple sells?

This to me is unfair competition. How can any other compete against Apple?

If it were "unfair competition" those retailers would be sued. Here's a little known fact for you: Best Buy and FutureShop provided those Apple-focused areas on their own, without any push from Apple. Why? Because they want to carry Apple products, and they know Apple has its own online ands retail stores, which means Apple really doesn't need Best Buy or FutureShop the way a companies like RIM, HTC or Samsung do.

[Drentz]

I'd rather have native clients, 3g radio, spell check, and a solid app market consisting of productive/fun apps. I hear people complain about the marketing. It's kind of hard to market a tablet that's missing a lot of features.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I think this points to RIMs lack of marketing. Things like native clients weren't missing, it wasn't part of the original vision of what the playbook was supposed to do. What is the use of native clients for a "dummy" device. Think back to its first introduction it was branded as your blackberry amplified. An extention of your already uber useful device, bringing flash content and more real estate to an almost maxed out OS and merging it with the more robust QNX. It was a feature for the business sector to reassure them that if a thoughtless employee were to lose their playbook at a bar a la iphone 4&5. The sensitive company info such as emails wouldn't be compromised.

unlike apple and mr. jobs who was able to dictate to the masses what they should deem as useful features/ or useless features, Bloggers and tech media sources (mostly apple fanboys) were able to dictate and deem features of RIM useless. Stronger marketing would have stopped this. I believe that RIM tried to use the playbook to win back and retain its blackberry users.

There should be no suprise that 2.0 is a slow roll out, because they had to add " features" that they may not have intended to be present. The "end of summer" quote was probably more of a PR move than a promise. As far as apps and games, thats not RIMs fault totally. Developers make games and apps not RIM so much. Once again marketing could have helped to forge partnerships with developers.

And a 3G radio... even the first iteration of ipads were wifi only. But the playbook has an added advantage with wifi only .....BB Bridge!!

All i see is that RIM is not allowed to play their own game, they are forced into this apple box, under apple rules to be... one tablet...under jobs....indivisible....with liberty without equal consideration for all others.

If i want a 10 inch screen on a device thats not so mobile to play games with that also has native clients i will get a netbook...wait pc's dont have native clients either.

[Drentz]

The OP is correct we need a steve. The two headed monster of Jim & Mike are an example of two heads not being better than one. Shared leadership diminishes the perception of power. Steve didnt just uplift apple, apple exalted Steve. One fed on the other, giving by default the power to the leader. People have always been attracted to Power. Its a simple equation. Power+media= mindshare.
Mindshare +power turns added benefits (features) into must-haves
Power + mindshare excuses lack of features

WE NEED A STEVE!