[almasyfire]

As we recently delve into the Blackberry Playbook OS 2.0 and the dawn of the new IPad 3 (or IPad HD, we'll find out soon) with it's new iOS, I wanted to express my opinion about which one of this tablets is the better of the two.

I won't write about android tablets because I don't have experience with them, all my friends have IPads (1 and 2), none of them have android tablets, and I'm the only one in my group of friends with a Playbook.

You see, coming here and telling everybody that either one of them is better than the other is just wrong and false. Nobody can tell you that, just because they are very different kind of animals. First, I'd like to tell you all my experience with IPads.

Being an apple product, I wasn't expecting less when the IPad first arrived. It was just awesome. I remember the first time I held one in my hands I couldn't stop scrolling a webpage up and down. The experience was unique and very impressive, so I really wanted one.

But after a while it just grew old. We kept doing the same things with the IPad, just drawing some things for fun and playing some games, and my friend told me that he preferred his computer to do everything else, from writing documents to reading books and browsing. At that moment I decided to not buy an IPad, I just wasn't feeling it anymore.

One year later, the Playbook was released and it didn't really impress me at all. It did every single thing the IPad did one year ago, I didn't have any hype for it. I remember the first time I held a Playbook in my hands I wasn't drooling all over it, but I remember that I though the OS was very sober, and I just simply loved it, at that same moment I decided I wanted a Playbook.

I've always been a Mac guy, I love Macs and I hate PCs, that's just the way I feel. But on the other hand I love BBs, I've had a Curve 8310, a bold 9700, and currently a bold 9900. I've tried the iphone several times, and I think it's a very impressive cellphone, but it will never match the feel of BBs. the trackball at first, the trackpad now, and the keyboards, my god, what an incredible design. They just FEEL right for me.

That is the same deal with the IPads and the Playbooks. The IPad felt like a toy to me, instead, the Playbook felt like a tool. And I think that's the way the world sees these two tablets. Grab any IPad and you'll find more games than apps in them. Grab any playbook and you may find games, but you'll definitely find work to be done with it.

My Playbook makes my life easier, IPads just make life more fun. So my conclusion is this, don't search the internet to find out which one of the two is better, as they both are better in their own way, but try to test them and think of what you want in a tablet. If you want games, definitely go do yourself a favor and buy an IPad, as right now it has more support than the Playbook, but if you want a powerful tool, a more portable tool, a safer tool, a tool at all to help you with your work, you'll be wise to go with the Playbook.

I really hope in the future the Playbook gets more support for games and apps, because it has the power inside to handle very good graphics, but I think RIM should focus more on productivity apps instead of gaming apps. Put it simply, I'd prefer reading a PDF on an IPad, because the software is better, it supports highlighting and searching, the adobe software that comes with the Playbook is just plain, it opens documents, that's all, period. Another example is the input support. In China there are millions of people in the tablet market waiting for the playbook to get chinese support. It doesn't have to be handwriting support (as much as I would love that), handwriting is slower than pinyin, which is the input of roman letters, but it has to have at least some input support.

All being said, I do think the IPad is great for working too, don't get me wrong, I just think it doesn't feel very good for me to work on it, as it does on the Playbook. Just remember that both are great machines, it's just that they aren't for the same type of person.

[Fuzzballz]

I really hope in the future the Playbook gets more support for games and apps

Sadly that's just not going to happen. You're going to see a few straggling Android apps ported to the PB and that's pretty much it. By this time next year the PB will be fairly obsolete and hardly talked about. It's RIM's failed child that will slowly be moved into the basement and mercifully forgotten.

People here are going to climb all over me for saying that, but a year from now I'll resurrect this thread and point out how I told 'em so.

[eric89074]

I agree with Furballz. I wouldn't be surprised if BB cancels the PB later this year after the 3G version has disappointing sales. The iPad is an unstoppable force and when the 7.85" version is released later this year they other 7" tablet makers might as well wrap it up.

[almasyfire]

Sadly that's just not going to happen. You're going to see a few straggling Android apps ported to the PB and that's pretty much it. By this time next year the PB will be fairly obsolete and hardly talked about. It's RIM's failed child that will slowly be moved into the basement and mercifully forgotten.

People here are going to climb all over me for saying that, but a year from now I'll resurrect this thread and point out how I told 'em so.

You might be right, it is RIM's fault. The Playbook has a lot of potencial, and the delivery of OS 2.0 came a year too late. I just have hopes for this tablet, as I wrote above, the Playbook is right for some people, it has a market as do the other tablets. RIM was just a little bit bigheaded with the release of the Playbook. If the Playbook had released with OS 2.0, things probably would have been very different.

But as with every product, if RIM invests money in marketing and the Playbook's sales start increasing, than developers will invest more in the Playbook, that's how it works, nobody wants to spend time in something that will not give back profit. But sales of the Playbook are indeed increasing in a considerable way. Hopefully RIM has learn from their mistakes and are planning to fill the missing gaps with the OS.

[Hawkeberry]

"I really hope in the future the Playbook gets more support for games and apps, because it has the power inside to handle very good graphics"

hope so.

wait.. CB astrologers in this thread have already predicted doom and gloom for the "3G" version of playbook..

[JNM]

RIM still doesn't offer a mobile data solution for the Playbook. Up until a few weeks ago it didn't natively support email, calendar, contact, tasks, notes, or PIM synchronization of any kind. Nearly a year after launch.

That was really terrible and likely not something this product can recover from. It is a waste too, since the Playbook is a legitimately great tablet. It has been missing too much for too long though. I hate to say it but I think it is over...unless RIM releases a refresh of the device that is even nicer.

[Vindicators]

That is the same deal with the IPads and the Playbooks. The IPad felt like a toy to me, instead, the Playbook felt like a tool. And I think that's the way the world sees these two tablets.

It is exactly the opposite.

My Playbook makes my life easier, IPads just make life more fun. So my conclusion is this, don't search the internet to find out which one of the two is better, as they both are better in their own way, but try to test them and think of what you want in a tablet. If you want games, definitely go do yourself a favor and buy an IPad, as right now it has more support than the Playbook, but if you want a powerful tool, a more portable tool, a safer tool, a tool at all to help you with your work, you'll be wise to go with the Playbook.

I don't get it. You said that tablet is a matter of personality, but at the same time you are trying to say the iPad is a toy and the Playbook is a powerful tool.

So, a tablet with much better ecosystem, much better business/productivity software in both quality and quantity is a toy and a tablet can't even get a half-decen PDF reader is a power tool. Just because you think so, really?

Seriously, just be happy with your tablet, if it fit what you need.

[EricB1968]

I hate to say it but I think it is over

Nah, tablet computing is still very much in its infancy stage across the board.

[rotorwrench]

Really? Do we need yet another of these threads? Is Bass Pro Shop sponsoring a tournament tonight?