[lespierres]

Just heard a guy from the New York Times say on Canadian radio that the Playbook will be finished in a year or two! I love my Playbook. Surely this can't be true.

[BigwhiteUK]

well if you look after it you should get a few years out of it!

[project_x]

what does that mean? it has a fully functional browser....it should be good for a long time....what about xp, it has been "dead" for a long time, but almost every large enterprise is still running it on every desktop in the place....i expect it will be supported thru bb10, for a long time....

[TomJasper]

I have dropped mine three times , hardly a mark and it works perfect. The kids and wifes have run flawless also, even though the kids have taken more abuse then mine they work perfect.

Just heard a guy from the New York Times say on Canadian radio that the Playbook will be finished in a year or two! I love my Playbook. Surely this can't be true.

[anon3969612]

While in a supermarket lineup, I overheard a local tech blogger talking to the cashier about her hairdresser's friend's son who thinks that BlackBerry will not be continuing to support PlayBook after Q1 2014... I was shocked!

[SlcCorrado]

While in a supermarket lineup, I overheard a local tech blogger talking to the cashier about her hairdresser's friend's son who thinks that BlackBerry will not be continuing to support PlayBook after Q1 2014... I was shocked!

This is a joke, right?

[trsbbs]

The PB for all practical retail purposes died one month after launch.

They need to clean the table off and start again with a new name and all.

The name PlayBook is now next to the word Edsel

Tim

Sent from my BlackBerry 9850

[taz323]

Just heard a guy from the New York Times say on Canadian radio that the Playbook will be finished in a year or two! I love my Playbook. Surely this can't be true.

We already know that BB10 is coming to the PB, which will update the software. And my two PB are going strong and I bought my 16g when it first came out. And I do know me BB10 and the PB will be here long after what some Canadian radio says.

[Icarus3000]

Just heard a guy from the New York Times say on Canadian radio that the Playbook will be finished in a year or two! I love my Playbook. Surely this can't be true.

All Playbooks will self destruct on January 1, 2014. I heard this from a guy from Pravda, quoted on Yugoslavian radio, replayed on CNN, tweeted by my best friend cousin's neighbour's gardener.

[Rickster1]

Funny, looking at many other tablets, they have gone by the wayside...why? Lack of support. android is great at putting out new stuff but there is very little support or updates. inlook at the PB and where it has come from till now... RIM has supported it very well. lots of updates and added features. So many forget lack of features in other tablets initially. If PB gers upgrade to BB 10, well I call that fantastic support!! And for those early adopters that paid full price and feel ripped off... go buy an android tablet, it will be superceded in 3 months with no updates. Maybe that will make you happy. Just as anyone can say RIM will discontinue the PB, I can say I envision it as a piece of the puzzle allowing one to interface between mobile device and full on home computer. Just think if RIM were to create a more useful desktop manager that truly interfaced with your pc. That would vault them into another realm! Let's all be so north american and look out the short term, Samsung is using that myopic view to their advantage while Apple could totally dominate if they moved beyond all things Apple. The odds of consumers moving in droves to Apple computers is unlikely (imo) yet that is where the full integration of Apple products shines. It has happened before and can happen again to Apple... its closed format policy could bite them in the ***. It is fashionable to diss RIM as a small player but look back at Apple... it was in a very similar position a decade ago. Small player in the computer market...on the ropes.... same cfticism of Apple back then. There is no way for anyone to predict what will happen so take a position and reality may prove you right but no one knows for sure. All it takes with a one product company is for a misstep....problems with the iphone of a big nature and boom....problems in that market segment. Just look at Sony as an example, known for high quality and reliability, now they don't manufacture near what they used to, yet Sony Walkmans were THE product that everyone wanted during the cassette era. then competition, feature sets and other things cut into their market. So whatever happens will happen but no one truly knows. I am happy that RIM is still supporting the PB 2 years on and its feature set is really not outdated except for those that require the latest and greatest every 6 months to a year. It has been great to get updates to a product to extend its use versus requiring a new purchase to "update".

[tarektoverso]

I heard a tech. guy predicting 3 years ago that the Blu-Ray will be dead in 3 years or so. I laughed at him and told him, We will discuss this matter 3 years ahead. and here we are...

[rotorwrench]

Well, I have from a reliable source, Yik'in Chan K'awiil, a Mayan tech blogger, that the PB will be dead Dec 21, 2012. Better back up your data!

[FF22]

This is a joke, right?

Depends on whether the hairdresser lives in Waterloo!!!! Will Rim meet the same fate as Napoleon?

[PatrickMJS]

We all know that the head of tech reviews at the New York Times was a close, personal friend of Steve Jobs. I remember the NYT describing the ipad1 as nice and easy to hold (at 1.6 pounds), the ipad2 as so much lighter (at 1.3 pounds) and the PlayBook as quite heavy (at 0.9 pounds).

They have given all things Apple a soft easy happy sounding review and all things BlackBerry have been sent to the woodshed. They joined in the chorus of criticism that the PB is too small, and now they are praising the new ipadmini for being such a handy size!???

[bambinoitaliano]

The tablet will last as long as you want it to be regardless of what brand you are using. There will be newer and more features and latest technology coming till your dying day and beyond. The question you have to ask yourself, what's your need for a tablet? For work, entertainment, hobby or fashion accessory or just keeping up with the Jones.

[daglesj]

I'll say support will be dropped around June/July 2013 for existing Playbook kit. Leaving us possibly with a gimped half finished BB10 build as the final farewell.

Whether or not any further next gen Playbooks appear, who knows.

[CairnsRock]

Just heard a guy from the New York Times say on Canadian radio that the Playbook will be finished in a year or two! I love my Playbook. Surely this can't be true.

What does finished mean?

1. Withdrawn from sales and marketing. The 16GB model has already been withdrawn from sales in some geographies. That doesnt mean that they are still not being sold, but are in inventory clearance with no more supply available from the manufacturer.

2. No more software upgrades. We all know that the Playbook will be upgraded to BB10 in 2013.

3. No more tech support. Hardware repairs may normally disappear in a few years from RIM. However BB10 support will I believe enjoy a much longer life.

So if the comment means, no longer "for sale" that is probably, essentialy true, as RIM is highly unlikely to manufacture any more of the current models to sell at a loss. In fact all of the current sales that we are seeing, are store level inventory clearance.

That doesnt really mean a whole lot to us Playbook owners, just as I am still enjoying my 5 year old LG LCD tv, which I,m sure the model has long been discontinued from sale. I expect to enjoy my Playbook until it dies of old age.

Back to the original "vague" inflammatory statement which in essence is BS.

[BB_Bmore]

My PlayBook will die when I decide to bury it. Right now everything is going well.

[dugggggg]

The battery in the PB does have a finite life, which, for most people, will dictate how long the device will be viable.

Battery life depends on the quality of its manufacturing, how deeply it is regularly discharged, how long it is left in a discharged state, and how hot the unit typically runs.

[brianatbb]

There is a lot of truth to what you say. Where the argument falls apart is where Rim doesn't match the competition in offering new and more competitive tablets (except the 4g version, which sort of keeps it in the running) and doesn't do enough to match the competition on the app front. Sure, its original tablet is still supported (three cheers) and not exactly obsolete yet (two cheers). But Rim has to be aware that its competitors are moving ahead in terms of screen resolution, battery life, innovative functions and processor speed. Sure, I want to see Rim keep supporting the current iteration but it also needs to bring out newer tablets.

[JREwing]

I have owned my Playbook for over a 20 months now. It is IMHO, the best tablet on the market. I use it daily and enjoy the advanced features that to me are, second to none. But sadly, no one else I know has a Playbook, or have even heard of the Playbook. When tablets are being rated, you almost never hear of the Playbook.
I am angry at Blackberry for really blowing this great product beginning at launch. I won't go into all the reasons, since they have been hashed out here.

[SparkyBC]

Nothing really to do with rim. You can almost see daily negative articles on rim for no reason. Incorrect facts the list goes on and on.

Many sites like cnet etc are all biased and suck apple arse. Even being the playbook has been out almost a few years it still can run with the latest tablets out there and do a better job on the old 2.1. Wait till bb10 gets on it!

[Hgouck]

If you own a playbook it will last as long as the battery works. If you are looking to purchase a playbook in the future, I will let you know if it is still available to buy right after my battery dies on my existing one.

[bbobruns]

It will last until it doesn't.

It never crosses my mind that my PB will become a doorstop someday. The one point made that did get my attention was the finite battery life. Yeah, that is a bummer. My PB does everything I bought it for, save for having a decent map app. I travel with it a lot and it's easy to use on the plane for movies, having files at meetings and browsing the internet at night. Yes, it will die someday and perhaps be replaced by BB with a newer model, but I don't see it being useless anytime in the near future.
Oh, yeah. I have a 12 year old Dell Laptop. I recently upgraded the hard drive on it. I suspect that there will be a market for replacing PB batteries in the future with a YouTube video showing how it's done. It may not be for the faint hearted, but it will be possible.

[Betty2005]

Sent mine in for repair under warranty over 2 weeks ago. The micro USB port was broken. After not hearing from them, although I sent 2 emails with no reply, I called today. After some delay they told me it was not economically feasable to repair. Told me there was water damage. Not true. They wanted to scrap it there and I said send it back.. It is still under warranty but I think they just can't be bothered with the playbook anymore. So I think the comments on playbook days are numbered may be true.