[llllBULLSEYE]

I hope I'm not alone here.
I am keeping in mind that the Playbook launch was horrible and
RIM lost a lot of money on the initial Fire sale.
At launch was not a competition for the iPad2, but
Well now it is becoming a competition.
Besides the Playbook Rim really has nothing going on right
now as far as the latest Tech and Actually made a few thousand
people get a BB.
Just imagine if RIM never made a Playbook there would be zero
talks about RIM right now and things would of been really quiet.
Feb would of just been another boring month at RIM.

*Edit: I Did not mean the best thing to Happen in RIM's history.
Really just thinks it's the Best thing they have going on now.

[ichat]

Its becoming more keen on entering the immediate competition. I am glad on that. I must now officially admit 100%to this thread.

[Dapper37]

The value is yet to get its credit due.

[igotberryfever]

Playbook has become my closest friend. I take it everywhere work/stores/family events/gym/home/shower(for music i have a mount) just everywhere wife gets made but the playbook does everything i need for work and play best tablet on the market hands down. I hate us media and the apple fan boys that are in the media with all the neg lies.

[Spencerdl]

That really depends on what country you live in. In many other countries the BlackBerry phone (curve I think) is doing very well, maybe in Canada, USA and UK where the phones have been out awhile the PlayBook is dominating....It really depends. RIM bread and butter....so to speak, Is their phones, that's what made the money

[SnoozerBold]

My answer would be it's helped rim, NOW especially with the lowered prices and 2.0 but I don't think it's the BEST thing to happen to RIM. Its the best thing to happen to them this year. Last year the best thing would have been the Bold 90XX

[SnoozerBold]

Oh I miss read. It says is it the best thing it has going on 'Right now' That I would agree with.

[sleepngbear]

This is kind of a tough one to vote on. What RIM is doing with the PlayBook, specifically building ot the OS that's going to be the future of all their devices, is huge. In that light, then yes it is the best thing happening at RIM right now.

However, that's not how the rest of the world views it, and the fact that it's not likely to put a significant dent in iPad sales might position it as a relative failure in the eyes of some. I don't necessarily agree with that because haven't seen anything else singly have any measurable impact on iPad either.

Overall, I'd have to agree with Dapper in that we - and the rest of the tablet-buying world - have yet to seen it's full value. The truth, I think, will ultimately lie in the success of BB10.

[Economist101]

The best thing to ever happen to RIM was having a founder that visualized a product category before it existed. Whenever Mike Lazaridis had that thought, it was the best thing to ever happen to the company.

[addicted44]

I have to vehemently disagree with this. Please note that I am not commenting on the quality of the playbook, but simply the impact on RIM.

1) The playbook is a financial disaster for RIM
2) The playbook is a PR disaster for RIM
3) Most importantly, however, developing the playbook took away valuable resources from developing BB10 devices. If it wasn't for engineering resources spent on the Playbook, it is extremely likely we could already buy BB10 devices (I would guess they would have been out before the 2011 holiday season). That would have been significantly better for RIM than the playbook.

[EchoTango]

I voted "I need more time" because I think the jury is still out if this will be a winner in the long term. I define "winner" as financially positive, which we can't say is true for the Playbook today.

This in no way demeans the Playbook as a product only it's current market situation.

P.S. I've never been a fan of the name "Playbook", what ever happened to the more sinister sounding "Blackpad" ?

[drummer_god]

until the BB10 phones come out, playbook is the best product RIM has right now.

playbook is our glimpse into the future and is in RIM's big picture, whereas BB os 6 and 7 phones are not.

this time next year, it will be all about BB10 phones and the playbook.

[Willard814]

Only time will tell! Can't wait to hear what to Appleroids have to say!

[CrackBook77]

I think there are 3 types of haters out there

1 - The ignorant IT type that want it to do everything their PC does and more

2 - The Apple lemmings who think that despite the MANY issues with idevices and itunes they feel Apple is the best and only option

3 - The Android lemmings that think because it's Android they are more savvy and can do anything despite Android devices aren't really all that.

I own an iphone and had a 1st and 4th gen touch and I have had issues with almost every aspect of it and I can't wait to ditch it. I've tried almost every android tablet as well and they feel like they are running an OS that wasn't m design for them. It's nice but I definitely feel something missing.

Is the PlayBook perfect? No,but I. Love it and I honestly have no complaints. It does everything I could ask for in a tablet and I don't forget that I am using a tablet. My ONLY wish is to have USB otg to be officially supported.

[CHIP72]

You know, it would help if the subject title for the poll and the first option in the poll (the one meant to align with the poll title) weren't DRAMATICALLY different in meaning. The difference in the two phrases for all intents and purposes is two words, but those two words, "right now", create a discrepancy between what is being asked and the most similar poll option.

Anyone who actually thinks the Playbook is "the best thing to happen to RIM", as in RIM's entire history (which is inferred by the thread/poll title), seriously needs to have his/her head examined (and I say that as someone who really likes the Playbook, had never owned a RIM product before, and for whom the Playbook has exceeded personal expectations). The Playbook's lack of native e-mail client, along with RIM's continued reliance on an outdated OS on its smartphones, was a major reason why RIM had one of the worst years in 2011 public perception-wise that any tech company has ever had - we're talking Atari 1983 bad here. Over the last 12-18 months, RIM squandered much of the goodwill it built up prior to that, and has had its perception in many people's eyes change from positive to negative. It will be hard for RIM to get many of those people to view the company in a more positive light again, regardless how great/good QNX OS 2.0 is. What's particularly sad as it relates to the above is the Playbook IS clearly "the best thing RIM has going on right now" (i.e. the first option in the poll). The problem with that is when your best product is a product that was considered lacking in key functionality for nearly a year, it negatively taints all your other products, no matter how good they are, and also taints any improvements to the flagship product, no matter how good those improvements are. RIM needs to put out a much more spectacular product with their first Blackberry BBX/10 OS device to "wow" general smartphone users and get them to buy a BBX/10 OS smartphone than they would have needed to prior to their many debacles (the Playbook's missing functionality being one of them) in 2011.

[afgui]

LOL, i dont imagine anybody who develops a new product to a specific market and only expects 5% of the market share.

#'s dont lie.

apps dont lie,

apps gets users

playbook is missing apps that JUST WORK on other tablets

playbooks market share in the tablet world is minimal, 3rd party app developers spend their time developing apps for the bigger market share.

people who keep saying playbook has 1 million users, well compare that to IOS and Android user base.

then look at it in a software companies perspective, they know not 100% of those tablet users will buy or utilize their app, so why even bother developing for the smallest 5% market share,

profit margin is not nearly as high as developing for IOS and Android, spend the $ where you get the best return,

its simple business, big software companies like kindle, netflix, skype all have the ability to simply port a android file into bar and run it on playbook, but they have not,

playbook simply in their eyes does not have a high enough market share to even warrant a meeting to discuss developing apps for the playbook, its that bad in their eyes

#'s dont lie, smart business stay alive, ask yourself why after 2 fiscal years amazon, netflix, skype still do not have a ported app to playbook?

[Michel Souris]

Even with the current implementation of OS2, the PB is still worlds behind Android, and iOS (I guess, since i'm not intimately involved with that platform). The current native email is still primitive, with no implementation of IMAP folders, etc. I can not possibly use it and keep organized as I can easily do on my Android tablet, with full implementation of everything.
Hopefully, future updates to the OS will plug the holes, but right now they are still there big time.

[afgui]

you cant even change the bookmark name in the native browser,

this thing is far from being the tablet king.

it took 10 months to get a native email.

really?

and then people posting up stating the playbook replaces my laptop, uh ok....

[CDM76]

PlayBook is not best thing to happen to RIM. QNX is best thing to happen to RIM.

[mrbkkt1]

PlayBook is not best thing to happen to RIM. QNX is best thing to happen to RIM.

If only rim would make a phone on qnx, I would buy.

[kbz1960]

Yes it is...................but it's yet to be determined if it is going to save them. I hope it does.

[JamesDax3]

You poll and your thread title don't exactly jive. While the Playbook may be the best thing RIM has going right now you can't really say that it's the best thing to happen to RIM because frankly RIM is still a sinking ship. If they can survive until the release of BB10 then that will likely be the BEST thing to happen to them.

[CHIP72]

If only rim would make a phone on qnx, I would buy.

That's what RIM is trying to do. Hopefully they'll release the Blackberry London (or whatever they'll call their first BBX/10 OS smartphone) early in the second half of 2012 (July/August) rather than late in the second half of 2012 (November/December). The September to November period is an absolutely critical period for smartphone sales, and if you want a big holiday season, you need to have key devices out by no later than mid-November and preferably sometime in October.

[CDM76]

If only rim would make a phone on qnx, I would buy.

I am waiting patiently as well. Let's hope RIM has learned to a) deliver on time b) time release of products better. Would love to see BB10 phone by Sept 2012 but RIM will NEED to have them out by Christmas season 2012 to keep any sort of confidence and goodwill by its fans.

So RIM : aim for September's deadline but deliver by December 1 as worst case. PLEASE

[mrbkkt1]

That's what RIM is trying to do. Hopefully they'll release the Blackberry London (or whatever they'll call their first BBX/10 OS smartphone) early in the second half of 2012 (July/August) rather than late in the second half of 2012 (November/December). The September to November period is an absolutely critical period for smartphone sales, and if you want a big holiday season, you need to have key devices out by no later than mid-November and preferably sometime in October.

They need to follow the android route. Push the hardware out first, then update the software later. Otherwise the hardware is obsolete by the time they release it. Motorola and windows mobile learned the hard way, it took apple, Samsung, and HTC to change things.