[Banco]

With some of my (non) techie friends, the size of the screen also caused dissonence with the price. They likened it to LG trying to sell a 40" tv for the same price as a 55" Sony TV.

Of course, that bit is rather ironic. The media did faithfully report Apple's dismissal of the 7" form factor and agreed with them wholeheartedly about it being a complete non-starter, only to now say that with the iPad Mini, 7" is just perfect and 10" is often far too big. None of which is why it failed, but it was and is pretty pathetic on their part.

[RubberChicken76]

Of course, that bit is rather ironic. The media did faithfully report Apple's dismissal of the 7" form factor and agreed with them wholeheartedly about it being a complete non-starter, only to now say that with the iPad Mini, 7" is just perfect and 10" is often far too big.

Depends on the pub, I guess. I've seen a lot of media joking about how "7" tablets were DOA" then Apple backtracked. Of course, I've also seen others drink Tim Cook's Kool-Aid and spout his rhetoric too:

- 7.0" sucks, but 7.9" is glorious!
- It's got 35-50% more useable area

[NakedPaulToast]

I love the PlayBook UI, but I wouldn't say it is intuitive.

When the PlayBook was first released my wife and I went to our local Best Buy to check it out. We had no clue how to end apps, the concept of swiping from the bezel compared to swiping within the bezel is just not something that is natural. Occasionally, we did a bezel swipe, so we could then end the app, but we never made the association.

We finally (incorrectly) concluded that the device just wasn't stable.

We bought a couple after the firesale, and then having learned about the bezel gestures, we love them. I find switching to another tablet frustrating.

Elegant and efficient, definetely. Intuitive, not a chance.

[Banco]

Depends on the pub, I guess. I've seen a lot of media joking about how "7" tablets were DOA" then Apple backtracked. Of course, I've also seen others drink Tim Cook's Kool-Aid and spout his rhetoric too:

- 7.0" sucks, but 7.9" is glorious!
- It's got 35-50% more useable area

Well, the Guardian and the Telegraph here were two examples. Both tend to be ridiculously favourable to all things Apple. Those two may have skewed my perceptions by a few thousand miles!

[Thunderbuck]

I love the PlayBook UI, but I wouldn't say it is intuitive.

When the PlayBook was first released my wife and I went to our local Best Buy to check it out. We had no clue how to end apps, the concept of swiping from the bezel compared to swiping within the bezel is just not something that is natural. Occasionally, we did a bezel swipe, so we could then end the app, but we never made the association.

We finally (incorrectly) concluded that the device just wasn't stable.

We bought a couple after the firesale, and then having learned about the bezel gestures, we love them. I find switching to another tablet frustrating.

Elegant and efficient, definetely. Intuitive, not a chance.

You may have a point that it's not inherently intuitive. I will say, though, that it's applied with a wonderful consistency. I'm now finding that I'm trying to apply the same gestures to many other devices without even thinking.

I've played with Microsoft's Surface, for instance. There are actually a great many things I like and admire about the device, but the navigation isn't one of them.

[NakedPaulToast]

You may have a point that it's not inherently intuitive. I will say, though, that it's applied with a wonderful consistency. I'm now finding that I'm trying to apply the same gestures to many other devices without even thinking.

Exactly. I'm always trying to bezel swipe my iPad. I have no tolerance for iOS's double home to get to their "task manager" only to be presented with a tiny dock-sized app list. Never remembering if the apps "settings" are within the app or if I have to exit the app then fumble my way into the device's settings.

But sometimes I think PlayBook's amazing bezel gestures are a hindrance to selling the darned thing, at least from a store display model.

[RubberChicken76]

I love the PlayBook UI, but I wouldn't say it is intuitive.

I would, but it's different. My acid test is my buddy's 4 year old. Was flying on it in minutes. It does require some minor initial explanation though, but it's really not like you need to 'read a manual' to learn how to use the PlayBook. My mother is the least technical person I know and had an easier time with the PlayBook than buying music from iTunes and putting it on her iPod.

She has both an iPod touch and a PlayBook (received at the same time). As someone who never used either before, there wasn't an appreciable difference to her learning the navigation of either item.

[kill_9]

It was over priced with incomplete software at launch, and now almost 2 years later it has pretty great software but now lacks the hardware power of newer tablets. BB10 will make the software even better, but RIM needs to launch an updated playbook with new hardware to get people talking again.

The current hardware specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook are competitive with more recent tablets from other manufacturers. Do we really need more than a 1 GHz and dual core CPU? The only weaknesses in the BlackBerry PlayBook boils down to the small amount of RAM (1GB) for a graphically-intensive tablet capable of multitasking, and for those without a BlackBerry smartphone the absence of a microSD card slot, and finally the USB port made to the same standards as those on BlackBerry smartphones. I would have preferred either 2GB or 4GB RAM from the outset. As for the microSD card slot I store most of my documents on the BlackBerry smartphone microSD card and access them via BlackBerry Bridge, but it would have been convenient to have the storage expandability afforded by a microSD card built into the tablet with an option to encrypt/decrypt the content on the fly for the security conscious.

[Tre Lawrence]

Of course, that bit is rather ironic. The media did faithfully report Apple's dismissal of the 7" form factor and agreed with them wholeheartedly about it being a complete non-starter, only to now say that with the iPad Mini, 7" is just perfect and 10" is often far too big. None of which is why it failed, but it was and is pretty pathetic on their part.

Vastly different market periods, though. Apple's dismissal was presumptuous, but RIM's execution didn't help at the time either.

[kill_9]

I haven't seen a commercial for the PB since launch. Maybe a little advertising RIM?

Oh Research In Motion did a little advertising with the emphasis on little. The product was literally orphaned overnight after 19 April 2011. The only reason we got any updates was the high probability of a very vocal backlash by the early adopters of the BlackBerry PlayBook. The market spoke within the first 30 days following launch and by day 90 it was clear we had been sold snakeoil. Remember the promise of native PIM within 60 days and a steady cadence of software updates? The company almost went bankrupt despite a cash stash of approximately two billion Canadian Tire dollars.

[rotorwrench]

Which does show badly they stuffed up the initial release of the Playbook that you can have a device that powerful, that long ago and still make a mess of it. Pity.

A mess in your opinion. Many disagree and their opinion is as valid as yours. With my choice of tablets out there, I still bought a second one a few months ago. It works great for me, my needs and my company's needs. Great tablet regardless of price. If it's a mess for you, get rid of it (if you own one) and move on, life is short.

[Banco]

A mess in your opinion. Many disagree and their opinion is as valid as yours. With my choice of tablets out there, I still bought a second one a few months ago. It works great for me, my needs and my company's needs. Great tablet regardless of price. If it's a mess for you, get rid of it (if you own one) and move on, life is short.

I have a Playbook and I like it very much. But I was referring to the way they messed up the launch, failing to include native email and so forth. I'd have thought it was pretty inarguable that it was a mess to be honest. That's largely why it failed despite having the fundamentals of a very fine tablet - something both you and I know, but the wider public do not.

[RubberChicken76]

Oh Research In Motion did a little advertising with the emphasis on little.

I saw commercials for it all the time the summer it was out. Their messaging wasn't great, IMO, but they ran them a lot.

The product was literally orphaned overnight after 19 April 2011. The only reason we got any updates was the high probability of a very vocal backlash by the early adopters of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Oh quit making crap up. They had a roadmap for PlayBook updates. I agree it launched half empty but to say they planned on orphaning it and only made updates after people complained is utterly ludicrous. Like 'pull out of your rear-end' ludicrous.

lRemember the promise of native PIM within 60 days and a steady cadence of software updates?

The PIM comment was silly. I have to wonder if the engineers (who spent ten years making BlackBerry mail work the way it did) shrieked in horror when Jim B said it out loud. Or if Mike L walked into Jim's office after and hit him in the head.

As for the releases, there have been 10 or so software updates since the PlayBook came out. That's a 'fairly steady' cadence by my book.

The company almost went bankrupt despite a cash stash of approximately two billion Canadian Tire dollars.

Again, quit making stuff up. Where do you get this crap????

To go bankrupt, you need to be able to unable to meet your financial obligations (debts) with cash and/or the sale of assets. Given that RIM doesn't have a spec of debt and no creditors have come calling saying "RIM hasn't paid bills in six months", that's just utterly silly.

[balama]

loss of focus
what they were really good at "quick and easy, always reliable, secure remote communication" was lost when they decided to complete against the "toys" which in reality most popular phones/tablets really are with all their crazy apps.
now that they are slowly losing their core enterprise and government markets because of the BYOD work space infiltration, you can see them emphasizing their security roots again.
Confidence in their reputation as a 24x7 fail safe communication platform has taken some major hits in the past decade and that's where they stood apart from the competition in the past especially as email replaced phone communication.
Perhaps, skype, facebook and netflix along with steve jobs snake oiled the work place with communication distractions that have created less productivity than more efficiency.

I am hoping and waiting for RIM (starting with BB10) to save us from this device mess we now have before us.
Their bridge and QNX technologies have the strongest potential for a multitaking universal platform.(phone, tablet/PC, car)
In 5 years I would imagine a panacea device that does everything you need that pops into your car, pops out to carry with you, and pops into your home that does just about everything you need no matter what environment you happen to be in. As phablet,tablet and PC merge it isn't that far away.

Bottom line though is no matter how a great a device is from a design standpoint, if no one buys them or you have to sell them at a loss, you'll eventually go out of business unless you can create a separate offsetting income stream from things like content or connectivity provision.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I think you really only get one shot to WOW consumers... RIM failed badly on release day by releasing a BlackBerry Device that didn't do email. Reviewers didn't like it, and thus consumers stayed away and all those Android Developers that RIM had hoped would port their apps over stayed away. And the fact that you could buy a much better "known" tablet that had more screen real-estate for the same price or less... didn't help much.

And while the Hardware is still pretty good, the ecosystem is still terrible. Just look at the forums here, people wanting to know how to do this or how to do that. Many of the things that people expect a tablet to do out of the box, the PlayBook doesn't do without some technical playing around.

[randall2580]

We here in this forum are fanboys and gals and many of us don't care for sideloading Android apps that may or may not work into an Android emulator based on Gingerbread. Using the browser for things that should be done with one touch. Not being able to do things like watch a baseball game/football match without a work around. Imagine Jane Q or John Q public going to their electronics store and finding out thats what you have to do to get popular things most folks enjoy doing on a tablet. Or you can get a Nexus 7 or an iPad. Most folks chose the iPad, quite a few are now choosing the Nexus, and here in the States there is no enthusiasm at the electronics store for the PlayBook which most times you go into a Best Buy or the like are dark, non functioning bricks when you get there. I have never gone to the electronics store and seen another person with one in their hands. That's my anecdotal evidence as to why it didn't here in the States. I know the experience is different in Canada and perhaps some other places like the UK.

[RubberBroke]

Poor Marketing!!! Pathetic App Support!!! Incomplete OS!!!
When the playbook launched in India at a discounted rate I walked into a 'Blackberry' store only to find a display model with no apps loaded.
RIM instead of targeting their strongest markets ie. India, Indonesia, Thailand, Phillipines and the Gulf States chose to target a market where their brand had already taken a beating. The playbook still lacks native language support for the above mentioned countries. At a discounted price point the playbook would have been extremely viable if the locals could use it. Most people here already have blackberry.

Just so everyone knows. I own 2 playbooks and I'm happy with both of them. However my girlfriend hates hers as it STILL doesn't have a native thai keyboard.

[srj999]

I'm a rather late entrant to the PB party. I got a new job 18 months ago, which came with a company Blackberry Curve. I'd never used a Blackberry and was sceptical at first but within a week, I was a convert.

When my other half got promoted, she also earned a Curve. She, too, was unsure but soon got to grips. Then one day, on a whim, she bought a Playbook because she likes techie toys. The salesman was pushing hard to sell her an iPad but we're both staunchly anti-Apple. She opted for a 32GB version, as it was on offer at �199, versus the iPad at over �500.

The PB felt more solid & robust than the iPad and, although there were fewer apps, she immediately had her IT manager bridge it to the Curve. Now she never goes anywhere without it. It's more convenient on company visits than a laptop, she uses it as a simple video recorder and camera for uploading to Facebook and as a music player/book reader when we're away anywhere.

For Christmas, she bought me a 64GB model, as they had plummetted in price. I think she paid about �150 for it. I loved it immediately and have loaded a number of useful (to me) apps, including a couple of paid-for ones (shock horror!). I linked it to two of my personal email addresses, which makes it doubly useful for keeping up to date on messages while away from home.

My latest purchase was a bluetooth keyboard which has made it even more useful, as I can now use it as a second laptop for my train journeys. The keyboard is a little restrictive but at least I don't lose any of the screen with the on-screen keyboard any more.

I am planning a long road trip and will take the PB to write updates as I go. For photos, I'm more likely to use my other half's digital camera, as it has wifi, so I can upload images as I go.

I only have one criticism: no USB 'A' or microSD slot. If it's because of RIM's perceived security issues, how is it that I can download files from my PC via the PB cable? I don't have any specific issues with the operating system (mine has OS 2.1) but Iunderstand that BB10 will make it a blinder. I see a number of experts reckon BB10 is too little, too late. I hope not; I really wouldn't be without my Playbook now.

I seem to be rambling now..... Long story short - I'm lovin' it (can't imagine where I dug THAT slogan from)

[Goint]

I got it in September, I love it. Never used anything blackberry but I was really surprised at how great it was. Way better than anything android.

[collinc93]

it has potential. It might be redeemed yet

[BigAl_BB9900]

I dispute that the hardware's outdated. iPad Mini is roughly the same hardware.

Yet, IMHO, much better performance on the PB - is this because of a slicker OS?

[Plazmic Flame]

1) It shipped in a functionally broken state, no built in email client for a business tablet? Ridiculous.
2) It was priced at a huge premium for a 7" tablet. $599 for a tablet that couldn't even handle email and was half the size of an iPad. Doomed by hubris.
3) Confusing interface made in-store demos an exercise in frustration.
4) No app support.

Could have ended the thread after the first reply lol.

Sums it up nicely.

[Banco]

Funny thing though, I looked at them when they first came out, and I have had BlackBerry phones for years. But the lack of native email really put me off more than anything else. And now I have one, at the much cheaper price.....I've not bothered to put email on to it. I just use Bridge. So whilst it was obviously disastrous for non BB owners, for me it had an effect too, even though ultimately I haven't needed it. I wonder how many others that applied to in their core market.

[majorusa]

No basic apps. No specific apps. Expensive apps compared to ipad. Did I mention the lack of apps?
Also, have you tryied to write on crackberry from your PB? The keyboard lag is terrible.
And remember. A piece of hardware is as good as the software for it. The PB still has issues like losing wifi connection, browser not playing flash correctly, pages not loading all elements. I am looking for BB10 but this update will not solve one really important issue: the lack of apps.
Meanwhile beside the two PB s that I own I got myself an iPad 4 because I needed the Skype, the Kindle, some specific work apps, etc. Now I use the PB only for sites with flash. And this makes the PB a very expensive web browser.

[Sriman]

IMO, it is due to three reasons...

1) price at launch
2) software
3) apps...