[jonty12]

okay, first of all, I don't believe this to be the case myself, but just thinking outloud.

If I were RIM, and experienced all the negativity from the tech press over the past 18 months or so about anything and everything I've released, I would rethink things. Come up with a new strategy. Here's one...

Release something with great potential but lacking a few things that you know it'll have within a few weeks. Wait for the tech press to pounce and see what they criticize, knowing full well that you have an answer to all their criticisms in your back pocket ready to go. Then when you answer them all:

1. updated power button design - check
2. no native email/PIM funcitonality - check
3. lack of apps - check

they've then already played their hand and have NOTHING left to complain about, or else they look like they're just fishing for stuff.

Can you see the argument? They complained about X, Y, and Z and said everything else was great, now we have X, Y, and Z, so who's your daddy?!?

I actually do sometimes use a similar strategy at work, and it works very well.

let the flames begin....

[JRSCCivic98]

So basically, bait and switch? lol I don't think so. These are the same types of flaws we've seen on other products from them. It's nothing new. Only thing new is that the QNX OS on the PB is updatable by RIM directly and doesn't need to go through the carrier testing BS as the Blackberries do. Think of the PB as a non-retail test Blackberry in consumer hands if you will. RIM employees have access to multiple daily updates to an OS for a Blackberry model if they want to load them. This has always happened... this is kind of what you're seeing with the PB builds that get pushed out. There have been several builds for public use so far for the PB since early release and it would be surprising to not see at least one per month after release to polish things up... maybe even several per month, espeically if the process is a quick one. No carrier idiots to test stuff is a good thing for once for RIM.

[RubiKean]

The thing I find a little sad is how short the memories are of the people who really bashed the Playbook. iOS 1.0 and Android 1.0 were not complete when they were released. I don't even think Android had a media player at launch.
I do agree with your sentiment though. pundits and critics do have loud voices sometimes... but RIM's marketing and dramatic public interviews haven't helped matters much.
I, for one, will be an early adopter. I am sure I will have a wish list and a praise list of my own, but I see the bigger picture. For me, I'm sure I will be happy with the Playbook next week and even happier after Blackberry World.

[jonty12]

Poker's a much easier game to play when you know what your competitor's holding.
They really are in a no win situation with the media. I'm not making excuses, I've said in another thread that if I didn't have a BB, the PB wouldn't be an option for me until I saw an email/PIM client (for various reasons).

I do truly believe, however, that if it did have an email client at launch, the media would have found something else to complain about.