[sicz24]

Do you think the reviews would be much more positive? Seems to me that all the reviewers have a thing against RIM, why? Its a great product with better specs than the competition yet there seems to be no love for the Playbook.

[jwn66]

Yes, they would of been more positive if this was lolApple.

IB4scottsdale.

[slingxshot]

Duuude, my ipad ownz, ur playback is s$$$, apple ownz, i don't care what you say... ipad is better becauuusezz. Your playbook is gaarbage, what kind of name is that anywayz, well dude, it just sucks because okay.. it sucks... just because.. Apple ownz! I ownz you allz.. Okay... APPLE ROCKS! ITZ DA BOMB! GO APPLE!

[dutchtender]

Do you think the reviews would be much more positive? Seems to me that all the reviewers have a thing against RIM, why? Its a great product with better specs than the competition yet there seems to be no love for the Playbook.

it's not a great product. that's why the reviews were awful.

[1812dave]

Do you think the reviews would be much more positive? Seems to me that all the reviewers have a thing against RIM, why? Its a great product with better specs than the competition yet there seems to be no love for the Playbook.

Most tech pundits love Apple gear.

RIM has been behind the 8 ball for some time.

So, "YES", if the PB had come from Cupertino, even with the same issues, there would be much fawning over it, and the Apple-faithful would eagerly be lining up outside of the launch stores, several days in advance.

[pseudo7]

Apple wouldn't have made some of the questionable decisions RIM made, though.

For the sake of argument, let's pretend they did...I'd imagine an Apple PlayBook would still be lambasted for its memory management issues, lack of email and calendar, small screen size, and terrible apps. Sometimes a dud is a dud no matter whose name is on the box.

[Innerchild]

Yeah... It's not like its antenna is in the bezel or anything. Great product or not, if it had an Apple on it, there would be lines around the block to buy it at every store. Don't get it... really, I don't.

I think the Playbook IS a great product, and the name Blackberry on the back is all I need to believe that.

[howarmat]

even if it was made by apple my opinion wouldnt change about the device. It would still lack major features i want/need in the device. The only thing negative about the xoom that i really have a major issue with is the non functional SD card....but atleast its there.

[Chronos88]

Apple wouldn't have made some of the questionable decisions RIM made, though.

For the sake of argument, let's pretend they did...I'd imagine an Apple PlayBook would still be lambasted for its memory management issues, lack of email and calendar, small screen size, and terrible apps. Sometimes a dud is a dud no matter whose name is on the box.

Apple has made more significant questionable decisions... No multitasking until a future update, small amount of memory on the first and second generation iPads, no copy and paste or MMS capability for a significant amount of time, the extreme stubbornness to not include Flash, and the whole antenna thing.

Had it been an Apple logo on it, the lack of native email and calendar unless paired with an iPhone would be seen as a non-issue to reviewers or even a positive. Terrible apps, which is untrue on the PlayBook, by the way, would just have the apologizers saying that more apps will come, and the screen size would be seen as a positive for portability. Lets not fool ourselves here, has this been an Apple product, the world would be going insane.

[Darlaten]

Had it been made by Apple, you would have to hold it on a certain angle in order to get it to work and, if that didnt work, contact Apple and they will give you a plastic condom to wrap around the device

Silly question.

[1812dave]

Had it been made by Apple, you would have to hold it on a certain angle in order to get it to work and, if that didnt work, contact Apple and they will give you a plastic condom to wrap around the device

Silly question.

No--FIRST they would invite you into one of their stores to spend $39.99 for a "proper" sleeve to make it work. Only after much consumer pushback, would Apple finally cave, and begin offering them for free.

[semicoln]

Major reviewers are compromised. They have to be kind to Apple or they will be excluded from being invited to events or getting early access to review units. Even Apple lovers like Leo Laporte has said he believes he was black listed from events for being honest about an Apple product. Without access to events or review units, the competition for their lame gadget blog (which is a very competitive area) gets the web traffic.

[1812dave]

Major reviewers are compromised. They have to be kind to Apple or they will be excluded from being invited to events or getting early access to review units. Even Apple lovers like Leo Laporte has said he believes he was black listed from events for being honest about an Apple product. Without access to events or review units, the competition for their lame gadget blog (which is a very competitive area) gets the web traffic.

Poor Gizmodo, eh? I guess they have a lifetime ban at Apple events.

[ericlc2]

If the Playbook was made by Apple

I wouldn't be buying it

[pseudo7]

Apple has made more significant questionable decisions... No multitasking until a future update, small amount of memory on the first and second generation iPads, no copy and paste or MMS capability for a significant amount of time, the extreme stubbornness to not include Flash, and the whole antenna thing.

Had it been an Apple logo on it, the lack of native email and calendar unless paired with an iPhone would be seen as a non-issue to reviewers or even a positive. Terrible apps, which is untrue on the PlayBook, by the way, would just have the apologizers saying that more apps will come, and the screen size would be seen as a positive for portability. Lets not fool ourselves here, has this been an Apple product, the world would be going insane.

The difference is Apple made those decisions at a time when they could afford to do that. They could release an iPad with 256MB of RAM because they weren't competing against anything in that space.

When someone goes out to buy a tablet next week, there are better choices than the PlayBook (in its current form).

[ambon21]

iphone 4 is a great example of anything with apple logo on it will sell no matter what ... hey heres an iphone 4 it might drop calls randomly but its got 20 different farts from different continents of the world n people be campin out for days for it.. o well it is what it is ..

[PineappleUnderTheSea]

Problems is that Apple has set the bar in smoothness of OS, i.e. no memory errors, smooth multitasking (if you call what they have multitasking), good browsing, etc. So when anything pales in comparison like the Xoom did, reviewers let you know their discontent. The PB has some software hiccups, and thus gets the reaming.

Kinda wish RIM had waited a couple of months to iron things out, for the sake of appearances. People buying the PB will no doubt love it, but for the general public who doesn't really know this product, the damage is done. But to your question, had it been an Apple product, I'm sure it would have sold gobs and gobs of units, that's the facade Apple has built for itself, good or bad.

[Najo]

The difference is Apple made those decisions at a time when they could afford to do that. They could release an iPad with 256MB of RAM because they weren't competing against anything in that space.

When someone goes out to buy a tablet next week, there are better choices than the PlayBook (in its current form).

So following your point, you think it is now OK to put 512MB in the ipad2 and then use app freezing so it does not have "memory management issues". Maybe there is a better choice for you.

[flyersfan76]

Lets face it. If RIM bought both Tablet Kiosk, Motion Computing and still bought QNX and made those first 2 tablets with both Windows 7 and QNX all while increasing the market share that those 2 companies have in the professional world they would still be called copy cats and get bad reviews across the board.

[mynameisme]

If this were an Apple device, reviewers would definitely obsess over the bezel gestures. Instead of barely mentioning them, they would be described as smooth, more polished than WebOS, and of course, "magical".
The device would be considered subtly beautiful and they would likely talk about how gorgeous the screen is.

[howarmat]

So following your point, you think it is now OK to put 512MB in the ipad2 and then use app freezing so it does not have "memory management issues". Maybe there is a better choice for you.

it doesnt seem to bother the over 15 millions users that have picked up the ipad 1 and probably not the 30+ million ipad 2 owners either

[Najo]

it doesnt seem to bother the over 15 millions users that have picked up the ipad 1 and probably not the 30+ million ipad 2 owners either

Maybe, when they get around to making that many..

[enixon]

It's not like BlackBerry released a phone in 2007 that didn't have picture messaging...

OHPZ

[Double_J75]

If it was and Apple playbook it would have been....

Again, this changes everything Again!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Skeevecr]

it's not a great product. that's why the reviews were awful.

That's weird most of the reviews seem to be commenting on stuff like the missing email client that most wouldn't tend to use anyway or things like the power button being too small, which do seem to be pretty minor flaws to label reviews for it as being awful.