[kb5zht]

I truly don't understand how some can bash on the LTE Playbook price when it is not even officially announced. Guess you guys can't wait.

Even if you were talking about the rumor price of $550, no contract pricing. It is cheaper than all other LTE tablets in Canada. One poster points out $550 is less than $700.

Your bashers are no-brainers.

Wonder if it would be cheaper to buy a $199 wifi tablet and then get a hotspot...

[JewsusThe3rd]

Hello guys, i am a long reader of CB, and last year i made the jump from a Droid to the Torch 9810. At that time i could have bought a lot of "technically better" phones, but i always wanted a BlackBerry, so i bought one, and i was so much happier than with my droid 2, that i kept it, and came to like it very much. I am not the average consumer though, because i usually buy 2 phones a year off contract, since i like to have new gadgets. And so i also bought a PB 64gb for 299$, after OS 2.0 was released. I like it very much, the gestures are great, i need a flash capable browser for work, and portability is great. The not so great things i guess, are nothing new for the people in here, so no emphasis on these points.

I love CB for all of the wisdom that i got here for my BB and the rather unbiased articles written by the CB crew. But what i do not get is, why there are threads like this. Even if for some people the price is right ( and i could pay 550$ whitout problems for a 4g PB) it is ridiculous to say this, if the market has clearly spoken. For 97% of the people out there, the right price for the PB was max 299$. With LTE you can add 50$ more to that price, but thats it.

In the public eye, for most of the people in developped countries BB is a dying brand. The PB needed a huge price cut, so people were interested. These people are accustomed to see the PB as a ~250$ product and they will NOT buy the new LTE PB for ~500. The market has already spoken what a good price is. It is a disaster for RIM how much it costs the normal consumer. They will destroy what is left of their image with this product and this price point. I do not care that "the carriers set the price", because at this cost, RIM should not have bothered to even make this Tab. RIM will lose money with this product not only because the market already decided it will more or less ignore the PB, no. That RIM will lose the rest of their image, is even more costly.
The avg Joe will think: they had to firesale the first Tab, they have more or less no marketshare in the first world and they still have the balls to price the new PB at 550$. Yes RIM is being bold. But in such a bad way, that i do not have any words left to describe it.

The conclusion is, that RIM apparently did not learn, and that they just want to destroy their image even further. In times like these, RIM does not have the luxury to price a Tablet at 250$ more than the market value. And it makes me sad to see that they still did it.

[LimeTripBlog]

Sorry, I gotta save my money for BlackBerry 10

Me toooo
If playbook costs so much then BB10=????
No use guessing, be ready to be surprised

[texazzpete]

Extremely hilarious to see folks here comparing the price of a 4G Playbook against a 4G iPad and using that as a justification for the absurd pricing.

On the contrary, Most normal, sensible human beings will be comparing the 4G playbook pricing to the (discounted) price of the Wifi Playbook. And they'll come to the stunning conclusion that a somewhat faster processor and 4G is not worth the $300 extra charge.

Even when Apple introduces a new, iterative iDevice, the previous model doesn't usually drop more than $100 in price.

[tman1988]

[/b] ;7549917]Well, I certainly agree with you. The sheer level of stupidity that comes out of the comments has been bizarre. So let us hit a few of the highlights of the so called geniuses

1) Playbook price 549 vs iPAD or Galaxy 749 to 800 dollars.
Genius comment. How can RIMM price their products exactly the same or more than their competitors.
My response to the geniuses. I thought 549 is less than 800 (like 250 dollars). Maybe up is down and down is up. Maybe it is the new math everyone was taught.

2) Nexus vs the playbook.
Genius comment. But the Nexus 7 is exactly the thing as the playbook.
My response to the geniuses. Well perhaps that would be correct if you removed the two cameras, tossed half the memory and RAM, downgraded the screen, ran a stripped down version of Os and had no cell connection. I guess these things don't cost any money.

3) The market argument.
Genius comment. I don't need it and therefore nobody else does.
My response to the narcissistic geniuses. I don't need it either but I think someone does. How about a salesman using saleforce.com to stay in contact with the office, place orders and keep track of inventory. That took 3 seconds to think of.

Look all sarcasism aside, buy what you need. It is not hard to understand. The cell connection will be important for a group of professionals that need constant contact with a home base. Wi-Fi connections don't do the trick and it is not practically to be bridged all day. A different product for a different market.

WOW, you get so many likes and thanks for spewing so much misinformation.

"My response to the geniuses. Well perhaps that would be correct if you removed the two cameras, tossed half the memory and RAM, downgraded the screen, ran a stripped down version of Os and had no cell connection. I guess these things don't cost any money."

1 - You do understand the nexus 7 has one front facing camera, and unless the playbook has three cameras your math is horribly wrong.

2 - The Nexus 7 16GB does have half the memory of the 32Gb 4g version of the Playbook, you have that point right. But it does not have half the RAM of the Playbook, both the Nexus 7 and Playbook have 1GB of RAM.

3 - How is an IPS 1280 x 800 pixel display a downgraded screen from the 1024 x 600 pixel LCD display of the Playbook. Seems like an upgrade to me.

4 - I wouldn't exactly call Android 4.1 Jelly Bean a stripped down version of an OS.

5 - Yes it doesn't have a cell connection, but for the $249 vs $549, I really don't think that is worth the extra $300.

[bdegrande]

WOW, you get so many likes and thanks for spewing so much misinformation.

"My response to the geniuses. Well perhaps that would be correct if you removed the two cameras, tossed half the memory and RAM, downgraded the screen, ran a stripped down version of Os and had no cell connection. I guess these things don't cost any money."

1 - You do understand the nexus 7 has one front facing camera, and unless the playbook has three cameras your math is horribly wrong.

2 - The Nexus 7 16GB does have half the memory of the 32Gb 4g version of the Playbook, you have that point right. But it does not have half the RAM of the Playbook, both the Nexus 7 and Playbook have 1GB of RAM.

3 - How is an IPS 1280 x 800 pixel display a downgraded screen from the 1024 x 600 pixel LCD display of the Playbook. Seems like an upgrade to me.

4 - I wouldn't exactly call Android 4.1 Jelly Bean a stripped down version of an OS.

5 - Yes it doesn't have a cell connection, but for the $249 vs $549, I really don't think that is worth the extra $300.

Thank you for pointing this out - and I say this as someone who looked at both the Nexus 7 and the Playbook and wound up getting the Playbook, with the better cameras and HDMI out being major factors.

I have used Android since the beginning, and I keep hoping it will mature into something I will like. It's not quite there yet, I definitely prefer the Playbook's OS, but I certainly wouldn't call JellyBean a stripped down OS either.

[smartie88]

Thank you for pointing this out - and I say this as someone who looked at both the Nexus 7 and the Playbook and wound up getting the Playbook, with the better cameras and HDMI out being major factors.

I have used Android since the beginning, and I keep hoping it will mature into something I will like. It's not quite there yet, I definitely prefer the Playbook's OS, but I certainly wouldn't call JellyBean a stripped down OS either.

do you think OS2 is mature? just curious

[texazzpete]

[/b] ;7549917]Well, I certainly agree with you. The sheer level of stupidity that comes out of the comments has been bizarre. So let us hit a few of the highlights of the so called geniuses

2) Nexus vs the playbook.
Genius comment. But the Nexus 7 is exactly the thing as the playbook.
My response to the geniuses. Well perhaps that would be correct if you removed the two cameras, tossed half the memory and RAM, downgraded the screen, ran a stripped down version of Os and had no cell connection. I guess these things don't cost any money.

As the guy above me said, to think that this level of misinformation managed to snag 6 Likes and 4 thanks...probably from the same folks that'll angrily froth at the mouth and open topics about 'media bias and misinformation'.

[bdegrande]

do you think OS2 is mature? just curious

I think OS2 is closer than JellyBean is. I think OS2 mainly needs a more powerful processor than the current Playbook has, load times for some applications take a while, and a 2-3 minute boot time on a solid state device is ludicrous. Once it is up and running, I like it about as well as iOS (iOS is faster but less powerful) and better than Android, which is just starting to get the user interface right.

[Saiga]

I think OS2 is closer than JellyBean is. I think OS2 mainly needs a more powerful processor than the current Playbook has, load times for some applications take a while, and a 2-3 minute boot time on a solid state device is ludicrous. Once it is up and running, I like it about as well as iOS (iOS is faster but less powerful) and better than Android, which is just starting to get the user interface right.

Erm what? You honestly think the PlayBook OS is more mature than Jelly Bean? The PlayBook has a nifty UI, but software-wise it is horrible. It is missing features that should have been there since launch. I mean we can't even edit bookmarks on the PlayBook. Even Cupcake could handle that lol. I have a 7 year old BlackBerry 7250 that can do that also. But the mature PlayBook OS can't do it.

PlayBook can't even brag about its multitasking anymore. Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Note 10.1 can now do split screen multitasking. It works like windows 7 where two apps run on the screen at once and you can interact with both. PlayBook OS can't do that, but the inmature Android OS can.

I know the PlayBook OS has potential and a company could do a lot with it. But unfortunately, RIM bought QNX and they seem incapable of doing even the basic features of a OS. Just imagine what QNX would be doing right now if Google or Samsung would have bought it.

[mgm1979]

Just curious...if you took out the bridge tethering for the Wifi only option, does the 4g pricing become more palatable as an upgrade?

Hate to even think it, but any chance carriers and RIM are phasing out the internet tethering capability in order to drive sales to the 4g units (eventually)? Seems like that would play into the 'reduced hardware' model RIM is employing now (delete 16gb models, and all Wifi models, leaving focus on 32 and 64gb 4g models plus carrier contracts)

Just thinking aloud...

[bdegrande]

Erm what? You honestly think the PlayBook OS is more mature than Jelly Bean? The PlayBook has a nifty UI, but software-wise it is horrible. It is missing features that should have been there since launch. I mean we can't even edit bookmarks on the PlayBook. Even Cupcake could handle that lol. I have a 7 year old BlackBerry 7250 that can do that also. But the mature PlayBook OS can't do it.

PlayBook can't even brag about its multitasking anymore. Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Note 10.1 can now do split screen multitasking. It works like windows 7 where two apps run on the screen at once and you can interact with both. PlayBook OS can't do that, but the inmature Android OS can.

I know the PlayBook OS has potential and a company could do a lot with it. But unfortunately, RIM bought QNX and they seem incapable of doing even the basic features of a OS. Just imagine what QNX would be doing right now if Google or Samsung would have bought it.

Application software wise, and things like bookmarks are apps, not the OS, there is no question that Android is far better (and iOS is far better than Android), As an operating system itself, yes, the Playbook OS is better - easier to use, reacts more smoothly to multitouch, a more consistent user interface, you name it - and I have used Android as long as Android has existed. Android also has other structural problems that the Playbook doesn't - most apps are STILL phone apps and often don't run well on tablets, problems caused by different sized tablets (which BOTH Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean were supposed to solve), many tablets can't have their operating systems upgraded without rooting, etc. 2.0 was a more significant OS upgrade than most Android tablets will ever see, and it doesn't look like it will be the last one.

I still will keep using Android, maybe by the time of Lemon Meringue Pie or Macaroon or whatever they wind up calling future version, they will have a fully mature OS, but I think that the fragmentation issue is not going away any time soon. The Playbook OS and iOS know what hardware they are going to be running on, which is a big advantage. Android has the same issue that Windows did trying to run on all different sorts of hardware, and it will always cause problems.

[Saiga]

Pretty much every OS I can think of comes with a browser. The PlayBook is the only OS I can think of that comes without editable bookmarks. On our phones and the PlayBook we can't update the browser without an OS update? Why is that? Because it is a core part of the OS. In my opinion the core software is a big part of what makes the OS. If you didn't have those pieces of software you wouldn't have a usable product. You wouldn't even have the PlayBook ui without add on native software. You do know that the PlayBook UI is as much an app as the browser is right? The UI is a program written the same way the browser is. So if you drop the browser from the discussion I guess you have to drop pretty much everything else also.

We would have to Go all the way back to kernels and compare those. Then you will have a point. QNX is better than Linux. But how usefull would the end products be with just the kernels?

[narci]

This is not RIM specific...

Who wants to lock into a 3 year contract on a tablet?

I'm sure more and exciting things will come around within 3 years.

Even cellphones.

Big telecoms have already started to deny people early upgrades on iPhones. How many iPhone 5's you think they will sell to people who are still on contract with thier 4S?

[FreeJACLive]

Couldn't agree more~! Three year contracts are just plain dumb, so 2001. I will NEVER buy into a 3yr contract ever again, am done with those and everyone else should be as well! If it's too expensive on a 2yr deal then get something else.