[o4liberty]

I just picked up a Asus Vivo 11.6 laptop and it is giving my playbook a run for the money. It has a touch screen and a great keyboard and a fast processor. I just hope there is an update to the playbook soon there are too many glitches that I don't like.

[RubberChicken76]

Rubber Chicken says we are speculating when we say that the Playbook has been discontinued. Fair enough. No speculation in saying that the PB has become in scarce supply

Retail is a brutal, expensive channel where you are at the complete and utter mercy of the retailers. If you want premium placement on the shelves, you pay for it. If you want signs on the wall and demo models running, you pay for it and/or you do it yourself. If you want to be in flyers, you pay for it. Many retailers demand huge margins of up to 40% between the distribution price and the retail price. Some take the product completely on consignment - they'll pay as they sell the product. If the product doesn't move fast enough, it gets sent back ... often damaged. They also have big inventory commitments where you have to keep multiple units in stock in stores at all times.

It's a brutally expensive place to be. And - if rumours are to be believed, the PlayBook was already being sold at less than its hardware cost.

But with that said, retail is not the only channel to sell a product. Online is cheaper. Carriers are another channel. Direct is another. Business channels like large account resellers and value added resellers are another still.

I would not assume that "PlayBook is being dropped" because you can't find it at retail stores right now. It might be scaled back until a new product or relaunch happens with BlackBerry 10, but there are still places to buy them and the LTE model has been released in different locations.

[el31415]

If money is not the issue then buy an iPad mini.

[RubberChicken76]

And again:


If the PlayBook was out and out discontinued, they wouldn't have said this:

BlackBerry PlayBook – BlackBerry 10 Update Coming To Every Model

And they wouldn't have just launched this:
BlackBerry PlayBook 3G launches in the UK | News | TechRadar

or last summer launched this

The 32GB 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook Is Now Available From Canadian Carriers For $550 | TechCrunch

Nor would they be exploring future models:

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins:

The WiFi version probably is discontinued. But it's not the only model or the only software initiative ...

[Bbnivende]

dunno where you heard that,,, it doesn't take that long,,, i've never timed it but i've booted my 9850 & pb @ the same time & pb is booted a few seconds after the phone...

2 min 50 seconds ... not LONG but long enough ...

[Chaddface]

2 min 50 seconds ... not LONG but long enough ...

That's my experience. Just under 3 minutes.

[Chaddface]

I read a while back the company making the PB's stopped and layed off most of the employees. Quanta may be the name. I just assumed that meant discontinued. They may have switched to another company but that info usually leaks out. Maybe RIM fired Quanta. It seems there quality control was less then stellar.

[irrebkcalB]

If you have a BB phone, choosing the PlayBook is a no brainer. Apps are the the only real advantage apple has. BB10 will be coming to the PlayBook and hopefully so too will the full functionality of bridge features currently supported by the legacy BBOS.

One must bear in mind that "BB10" is a UI. The OS is QNX. "PlayBook BB10" will likely differ from the phone version but the QNX goodness will remain.

BTW, after the last update, tapping links is extremely accurate.

[Bdot-1]

I have a 9860 on the verge of death, been a great phone for the last 1.5 years but has its bugs and two mini usb fixes (75$ each). It's my 5th bb after both storms and a bold and one other model many years ago. At home my playbook is wifi and when I take it on the road it seamlessly connects through bridge to my phone. I stream music in my car surf the net at work, open and close the CB app many times throughout the day hoping to see the line bb10 now available for pb For the price the thing is awsome. Never noticed a battery problem, but the lack of proper apps like fitness, news, music, finance has me wishing I new why bb doesn't pay these companies $$$ instead of little developers 10k each for crappy apps. Anyways I was sitting on the can the other morning playing "jet pack something" and on the screen pops up that my girlfriend was calling and since my phone was downstairs I wouldn't had known Love love love bb the bridge. I've been waiting hardcover for the z10 hoping it would be an upgrade to my once loved torch touch. I have to vent now and say I'm quite sad about the transporting events and bb's lack of communication about all the downgrades. If I upgrade I get even less apps, less bridge, less battery, less security and a bigger bill from data. I think I'm going droid...S3 or S4 if the release is this summer. I may be back for the z11... I really want a bb but this community is the weirdest community of the big 3. Droidians help each other fix problems and create new ways to use their devices on their boards. Here at CB the vets harass newbies and say things like "go away if u don't like it" when clearly the posts represent a common feeling of not being heard. This is the largest bb forum and doesn't look good on bb when people are constantly cutting up owners who are trying to figure out how they can make their hard earned investment better... Not all of us have money to upgrade devices every year.. I'm canadian, I live in toronto, have friends who work for rim (just like it will always be the skydome) ... I don't want rim to go away. Many canadian, American and Mexican jobs are at stake (I read a post that alot of the phones are assembled in mexico). If I go droid then my company goes droid, about 30 phones since z10 has no cross platform messaging except sms. If I had a schedule, then I could get by but I've been waiting for an upgrade for along time and the current z10 and playbook combo isn't it. I hope blackberry is reading... Even my friends who work in waterloo at rim know nothing and are completely in the dark.... Sorry for the long rant, I'm looking for a hug

[irrebkcalB]

Get yourself a 9900 and continue bridging away. The 9900 really is a nice phone. After a couple of years, BB10 will be a mature platform and many of your concerns will probably have been addressed.

[Bbnivende]

I agree with irrebkcal ... the BB9900 is a very nice phone that will get you and your company through the next while. You can continue on as before. If you like your current set up then you will not be happier with the Androids. I just want to suggest that maybe your employees might appreciate an upgrade to the Z10 or Q10 sooner than yourself but since you are paying BB.7 will keep you operational. One caveat ... your PB will not last forever and you might want a replacement while you have the chance.

[Bdot-1]

I just read Tom's Hardware US , and somehow feel a bit better

[kdeckels]

This is just a question , so don't flame me. Can't you use mobile hotspot or bluetooth maybe not as good etc but as an alternative ?

Hotspot might be even faster. I guess I was was thinking of not needing to pay for the hotspot feature and not needing to worry if I've pulled enough data that I'll get charged. I'm on a plan Verizon refers to as "ancient" - its basically an unlimited plan.

[RubberChicken76]

I read a while back the company making the PB's stopped and layed off most of the employees. Quanta may be the name. I just assumed that meant discontinued. They may have switched to another company but that info usually leaks out. Maybe RIM fired Quanta. It seems there quality control was less then stellar.

An analyst speculated that production was curbed after 1.5 million PlayBooks were made. However, there have aince been another half million shipped and the faster LTE model launched

[CBCListener]

I just read Tom's Hardware US , and somehow feel a bit better

Proving, for some of us, anyway, that some people make too much money.

[bitek]

I'm either picking up an iPad Mini or a cheap Playbook. I'd be using either with a z10. I've been out of the Blackberry loop for a while. Do I gain anything by using a Playbook with the z10?

at this point bridge feature is non existant with z10 except for internet browsing through bluetooth conection (it is fast though with z10 lte). I would still buy playbook because of price, flash support and bb10 coming to playbook this year (some saying as soon as this month)

Sent from Blackberry Playbook using TapaTalk 2

[kbz1960]

Bridge is useful so that you can read/respond to Z10 emails on the PlayBook, especially if you can also find a mini-keyboard for cheap to make it a small portable laptop. HDMI port...well depends on whether you would use the device to view videos on your television/HDMI monitor. Speakers are better in general than those on the iPad. Swipe based gestures and multitasking make the iPad's button seem ancient, archaic and slow. Flash is still very prevalent on the internet which makes the PB better as a browser, lots of pages don't fully work on my iPad still but going forward it will be slowly phased out... but by then whichever tablet you choose will be obsolete. And obviously, the price is the big draw if you can find one.

Do emails bridge from a Z10 to the pb? I thought all bridge does now is the browser and a work browser?

[Richard Kapp]

I'd go for the iPad Mini. It is lighter, thinner, it has better and far more apps to keep you entertained. The OS is also fluent and smooth (thanx to the fantastic hardware acceleration) . The PB is a fine tablet if you don't want to spend so much money (the iPad Mini is quite expensive in my opinion). It has lovely stereo speakers, the OS if smooth (although apps aren't often), mail is better IMO, the browser is fine (although not as good and fast as Safari on iOS), it even supports flash (something I miss on my iPad 3 now and then). So, If all you want is surf the web, e-mail, play some nice games (there are some decent ones out there), watch video, listen to music while saving some money, I can definitely recommend the Playbook (and you might want to put the Bridge to good use), but if you want more than this, you will likely be more happy with the iPad Mini, I think.

[Bbnivende]

An analyst speculated that production was curbed after 1.5 million PlayBooks were made. However, there have aince been another half million shipped and the faster LTE model launched

RC I know you do not like speculating but how may of the 2 mill units out there are still being used (not broken) ... say 1.7 as a speculation . Now after they dropped the price there were a lot of non BB folks that bought it ... so I might speculate that about 1 mill left in BBers hands ? So I wonder what % use the Bridge since native e-mail came along ? That would be mainly business types. I think it would be very generous to suggest 500K. But even if it is more and considering the total population of BB users being 79 million Is it any wonder why BB doesn't think the Bridge is such a big deal ?

I think the reason why it is a more visible issue here is that more Canadians bought the PB relative to other countries ( except the UK PB is popular there as well) and because Crackberry has a higher Canadian readership relative to its entire base .

Flame away.

[SEAWARRIOR]

2 min 50 seconds ... not LONG but long enough ...

unless you're calling in in airstrike, what's the hurry???

[Bbnivende]

unless you're calling in in airstrike, what's the hurry???

Ha ha LOL ... but Canada calls an Airstrike (by the one jet that is operational) they would be up in the air in 25 seconds using the Ipad ! so be very careful.

[SEAWARRIOR]

Ha ha LOL ... but Canada calls an Airstrike (by the one jet that is operational) they would be up in the air in 25 seconds using the Ipad ! so be very careful.