Personally, I think RIM is only looking for a grace exit with regards to PlayBook... the way they are handling the PlayBook is not very convincing that they have long term plan for it... they cannot do it now, probably because of their future BBX phones... but once they realized how to disengage and disassociate the PB with the future of BBX phones, they will surely pullout the life support... afterall, PB is obviously not giving them favourable results... it's business... nothing personal...
You have to atleast recognize that RIM didn't even get their hands on QNX till about May 2010. In the time span of only one year they have:
- Came out with a tablet computer made with specs and quality that compares impressively against ANY available tablet before it.
- Invested in the OS to make it the first secure consumer tablet and it also provides some features that users of other tablets wish they had.
Not bad for the first year IMO.
I'm not happy about the delay for OS 2.0 but all things considering its only been out for 7 months. In that timeframe we've already had updates that provided some very good improvements.
Discontinuing the PlayBook would render App World a ghost town. You might as well have a poll to ask if RIM will continue be a major player in the mobile market.
And still, some people think it'll be discontinued. I don't really blame people for thinking that. Mike and Jim brought it onto themselves.
They acquired QNX about 1 or 2 years too late, they've over promised to many times and they have a Marketing and PR team that seem like they are novices at what they are doing.
Personally, I think RIM is only looking for a grace exit with regards to PlayBook... the way they are handling the PlayBook is not very convincing that they have long term plan for it... they cannot do it now, probably because of their future BBX phones... but once they realized how to disengage and disassociate the PB with the future of BBX phones, they will surely pullout the life support... afterall, PB is obviously not giving them favourable results... it's business... nothing personal...
Given the announcement yesterday, and the generally difficult competitive position that RIM finds itself in, do you think that the Playbook will be discontinued in the near future? Will we ever see a Playbook 2?
*WILL THE PLAYBOOK BE DISCONTINUED IN 2012?
I suspect it will. Stepping back and looking at things, it appears as if rim has entered the same death spiral that Palm did some years ago. It never ends with a bang, usually with a whimper. The longer a company tries to maintain it's independence under these conditions, the less relevant it's technology becomes in the marketplace, the more it's market share shrinks, and the less likely you are to find a buyer.
Whatever happens, that there will be no successor to the playbook is a given. There's no point in incurring the costs of a hardware upgrade on a device that is software limited.
