[CrackedBarry]

This is true, a lot of the discontent came from the announcement about the 4th gen iPad. But I think the price of the Mini is also turning a lot of people off. Uninformed consumers aside, what does this 7-inch tablet offer that the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fired HD cannot at $130 cheaper? Is the "iOS" experience worth $130? You can almost buy two of those cheaper tablets for the price of the mini.
.

That's easy. For that price you get a somewhat better camera, a better, 50% bigger screen, and a razor thin, gorgeous aluminum body, compared to the cheap plastic on the cheaper choice.

Best of all though, for that price you get iOS and over 250.000 dedicated iPad apps. That alone should give you 250.000 reasons for getting the iPad mini. That's Apples biggest advantage.

After I got my iPad, I barely use my Android tablet. First of all, Android just isn't there yet, in terms of a smooth and well thought out user experience, and most of the apps are really just stretched phone apps. iPad apps are not just much more plentiful, theyre also much better.

[Shlooky]

How would bridge be relevant if the buyer didn't have a blackberry to begin with?
Here's what killed the playbook...

1-No apps in App world when launched
2-No e-mail, calendar or contacts app because of the short shortsightedness of RIM's management (Not everyone who wanted to buy the playbook, owned a blackberry)
3-The size, it was only released in 7 inch, so right there, they narrowed their market
4-Marketing, or lack there of

[recompile]

I'll disagree. The ONLY reason the PlayBook failed in the market was the lack of pre-installed PIM apps. It wouldn't have mattered in the least if they were of average quality -- just as long as they existed.

That was the only major (and repeated) complaint. The lack of PIM. IIRC, RIM's entry in to the tablet market was highly anticipated -- and reviewers were generally very impressed with the product. That one "missing" feature was all anyone talked about. It was senseless and stupid and it killed what is STILL an excellent tablet -- and the only one on the market that I'd want to own.

Had they included a second-rate email client, it would have done MUCH better.

[Rello]

Or you could look at it as the Bridge is keeping it relevant while the ecosystem matures and it's the ecosystem that is causing the write-downs.

I dont know man, i think i gotta agree with berryboba on this. he speaks truth. I absolutely love bridge. My tablet is essentially always connected and i love that i dont have to pick up my phone much at all anymore since i can do almost everything thru my PlayBook...but it was definitely more of a crutch, especially at first. It shouldve launched with native PIM functions. Apps arent going to change the PlayBooks situation either. All PlayBook owners can do at this point is hope that BB10 will better even the playing field. The ecosystem is what is sorely missing and RIM will always be behind until this is fixed and they showing what exactly this supposed "mobile computing" future really is...

[recompile]

I'll disagree. The ONLY reason the PlayBook failed in the market was the flood of negative press due solely to the lack of pre-installed PIM apps. It wouldn't have mattered in the least if they were of average quality -- just as long as they existed.

That was the only major complaint. The lack of PIM. IIRC, RIM's entry in to the tablet market was highly anticipated -- and reviewers were generally very impressed with the product. That one "missing" feature was all anyone talked about. It was senseless and stupid and it killed what is still an excellent tablet and, yes, still one of the best on the market. As I mentioned earlier, it does things that I want that the iPad still can't, and will likely never, do.

Had RIM just included a second-rate email client, it would have done MUCH better.

[recompile]

What on earth is wrong with Crackberry? I can't quote, edit, or preview without posting.

Debugger is showing a bunch of errors.

[Tre Lawrence]

Refreshing. No one has blamed a conspiracy for the PB's performance.

I do have a question for the full-blooded PB enthusiast: can you see why folks on other platforms may not be wowed by Bridge? Just curious.

[westcoastit]

Just about everything you can do with Bridge you can do with an iPhone and iPad. iMessages come through to both devices, emails, you can easily do a mobile hotspot and share your phone's data with the tablet. Other than using your phone to control the cursor on the tablet or write an email on the tablet (still waiting for someone to explain how this is actually useful) is there anything else that's exceptional about BB Bridge?

[kbz1960]

No I still wouldn't buy an ipad if there were no bridge. I'd still buy a playbook.

[Knightcrawler]

The PB was DOA cuz they rushed it out. Had RIM launched the PB next march, with current (or slightly updated) specs and fully functional bb10, it would've made a mark. We've seen 3 new 7 inch tablets in the past 6 months or so, all provide something different, all are well received, and the 1.5 year old PB still beats them in the spec race. What's missing is the UX. Thats what killed the PB. Rim should have waited to launch a tablet AFTER they lunched their phones.

That being said, i think once bb10 takes off, Rim can still make an impact with a PB2. Its not about when you join the race, its about how you compete. They'll need to compete on price though, and it can't be any higher then $300. People will pay a little bit more for better specs, and they can capitalize on things like a rear camera, or high density screens....stuff that some competitors have, not that isn't necessarily found completely on each device (minus the ipad mini)

[Knightcrawler]

The PB was DOA cuz they rushed it out. Had RIM launched the PB next march, with current (or slightly updated) specs and fully functional bb10, it would've made a mark. We've seen 3 new 7 inch tablets in the past 6 months or so, all provide something different, all are well received, and the 1.5 year old PB still beats them in the spec race. What's missing is the UX. Thats what killed the PB. Rim should have waited to launch a tablet AFTER they lunched their phones.

That being said, i think once bb10 takes off, Rim can still make an impact with a PB2. Its not about when you join the race, its about how you compete. They'll need to compete on price though, and it can't be any higher then $300. People will pay a little bit more for better specs, and they can capitalize on things like a rear camera, or high density screens....stuff that some competitors have, not that isn't necessarily found completely on each device (minus the ipad mini)

[randall2580]

If you asked the average Tablet buyer to list their "hirerarchy of tablet needs" do you think "bridge" would appear on the list at all? Bridge is one of those "wow" features that all things being equal - Bridge is something cool you might say "that puts PlayBook" over the top the way that AllShare might for a Samsung Tablet or FaceTime might on a iPad.

All things are not equal and I think I will forever nash my teeth about the following as to why PlayBook has not registered with the general Tablet buying public, something I am sure to this day, RIM has released nothing that says they get it (thought I have high hopes that Alec Saunders gets it and is working his tuckus off to fix it).

The average "Joe Six Pack" hirerarchy of tablet needs does not include "side loaded apps run in an emulator". Most Joe or Jane Six Pack could care less about this, never mind has a clue how to do it, nor would they want to do it if they did. They simply want "XYZ" to work on the tablet they buy. When they see in an ad, on TV, in a magazine, a recommendation from a friend they want to go home and add that functionality to their tablet. No one gets this better than Apple. It is why they have sold 100 million iPads to date while all the other Tablets won't get halfway there. Just about every tablet issued before this year had a compromise, including PlayBook. Is there something major you cannot do on an iPad? I know the first word that comes to mind is Flash but if you say that can you tell me any functionality iPad loses because they don't have flash other than you can't see an occasional web page? Most likely, in the case where flash is needed "there's an app for that" - this was insanely brilliant marketing which leads folks to believe in iPad in the way that they do. Of the top 10 things on the average persons "hierarchy of tablet needs" iPad hits no less than 9 and in most cases 10.

If you do not side load you lose perhaps 2 of the 10 most popular items on the "hierarchy" and perhaps all 10 on PlayBook? If you are on AT&T and don't know someone who reads a BB Blog like this one, chances are they don't even know about the bridge as this major USA carrier blocks it unless you know the work around in the same way they wouldn't know you can actually do Flash on an N7 if you don't read an Android blog.

IMHO nothing does more for your tablet than the "find it on ______" (iTunes, Play Store, App World, Whatever Microsoft calls it) when folks look and say "i would like to do that on my tablet" and is IMHO the sole reason PlayBook cannot sell even at half the price of an iPad Mini, and $150 cheaper than an N7, in spite of some darn good hardware.

The biggest shame of all of this is RIM was here first and had the hardware to knock this out of the park on day one, and while they have taken a step or two along the way to fix some of it, the most important remain unchanged. BB10 can't get here fast enough for the phones or the tablet.

[00stryder]

That's easy. For that price you get a somewhat better camera, a better, 50% bigger screen, and a razor thin, gorgeous aluminum body, compared to the cheap plastic on the cheaper choice.

Best of all though, for that price you get iOS and over 250.000 dedicated iPad apps. That alone should give you 250.000 reasons for getting the iPad mini. That's Apples biggest advantage.

After I got my iPad, I barely use my Android tablet. First of all, Android just isn't there yet, in terms of a smooth and well thought out user experience, and most of the apps are really just stretched phone apps. iPad apps are not just much more plentiful, theyre also much better.

Although we're all injecting a bit subjectivity into our responses, this to me sounds more like opinion than actual advantages. In addition, this (to me) sounds more like an endorsement of why iOS is a better platform than Android. I am talking about hardware-wise; what does the iPad Mini offer that the current "giants" in the 7-inch world (Fire/Nexus) don't? 50% larger screen? going from 7 to 7.9 inches? I must be missing something here. The camera is the same camera found in the PlayBook, which is now 1.5 years old. The aluminum body might be pretty, but we've already seen how durable it is with the iPhone 5. The plastic might be cheap on the Android-based tablets but (so far) I haven't heard many people complain about the the body. With the PlayBook, the rubberized plastic backing is beautiful and feels great, in my opinion.

I'm not here to debate which is the better ecosystem or whether the Mini will sell well (because it will), I just want to know what justifies the Mini as now being the frontrunner in the 7-inch tablet race. Just like the iPhone 5, I think people are starting to wake up and see that the incremental updates Apple has committed to with the last two hardware updates may not justify the "Apple premium" placed on all of their devices.

[TheBlackberryUser33]

That's easy. For that price you get a somewhat better camera, a better, 50% bigger screen, and a razor thin, gorgeous aluminum body, compared to the cheap plastic on the cheaper choice.

Best of all though, for that price you get iOS and over 250.000 dedicated iPad apps. That alone should give you 250.000 reasons for getting the iPad mini. That's Apples biggest advantage.

After I got my iPad, I barely use my Android tablet. First of all, Android just isn't there yet, in terms of a smooth and well thought out user experience, and most of the apps are really just stretched phone apps. iPad apps are not just much more plentiful, theyre also much better.

Since when were 100+ dedicated fart apps reasons to get an iPad mini?

[Tre Lawrence]

Since when were 100+ dedicated fart apps reasons to get an iPad mini?

On a positive note, you won't miss them on BB: Search Results for "fart" - BlackBerry App World

[ayekon]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

[aniym]

It will forever be the epitaph of the PlayBook that it was here first and if RIM had only given folks what they wanted - there was a market ready willing and ready to spend on a 7" tablet. "Give the people what they want and they'll show up"

That's not correct. Samsung came out with the original Galaxy Tab 7 6 months before RIM. Right out of the gate they had 3G on it. International versions had full phone capability as well. Let's not attribute achievements to RIM that they weren't responsible for.

[dugggggg]

I very seldom have WiFi available, but I almost always have a cell signal. So the PlayBook, in conjunction with Bridge, is the ONLY way I can surf the web on a screen nine times larger than my smartphone, at zero extra monthly cost. Very well worth the $200 I paid for it, considering it continues to save me $20+ every month in Personal Hotspot fees.

Would the PB be DOA without Bridge? In my case, yes. Is the PB totally useless without all the missing apps? Obviously not.

[Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes]

Some with iphones like to say: "whell I don't need bridge. I can use wifi hotspot on my ipad and i do not incur any additional data charges!"

Well listen here kid, I have been to about 6 other countries this year. You either are going to pay out the for data roaming charges with that mobile hotspot or you can get an exotic SIM. The thing is, with many exotic SIUM cards in these places they do not allow mobile hotspot. This is where bridge is KEY for me.

[axeman1000]

The always mini and maxi pads, oops I mean the apple mini and maxi pads, are already dead in the water as they will soon hold the oldest OS and their hardware is dated. Still no NFC which will be the basis for making payments in the future, unless of course Starbucks decides not to go that way because they know sheeple will not herd if they cant pay for their lattes with their pads!

Face it apple has you drones so convinced that your part of something great but really you are only part of their great pocket padding ploy they have going!!!! Suck it up sheep drones, soon the fad will die. Remember Big hair and neon clothes were the next best thing in the 80's as well, and that fad died too.

Blackberry will be amazing with BB10 and the playbook is still more useful than a good chunk of the tablets out there, bridge or no bridge! It gets frustrating seeing how people can be so misled into thinking blackberry is limited, but anything you mention, it has a way to do. Video chat, works, video store and flash video for streaming tv sites, supports most if not all video types. Can move files over wifi, HDMI out, VGA out with real time use and not a mirrored display. And save it sheeple, I know you will come back saying it can be done but don't have netflix, skype,bahh bahh bahh, I have read the annoying posts again as to what it can do, but I have also read what it cant do, and that is where you have to man up and accept.

Here I will save you all the typing , this says what you will say best!!!!

[CrackedBarry]

Since when were 100+ dedicated fart apps reasons to get an iPad mini?

Ahh, well you see the dedicated fart apps on iPads are dedicated tablet apps, which really takes advantage of the space of the screen and provides a better user experience.

The dedicated fart apps on the Playbook on the other hand, are mostly Android apps, which are really stretched out phone apps. They neither look as good nor provides the user with as much fart-functionality as a real tablet app.

(This also holds true for non-fart apps, obviously!)

[axeman1000]

"Just about everything you can do with Bridge you can do with an iPhone and iPad. iMessages come through to both devices, emails, you can easily do a mobile hotspot and share your phone's data with the tablet. Other than using your phone to control the cursor on the tablet or write an email on the tablet (still waiting for someone to explain how this is actually useful) is there anything else that's exceptional about BB Bridge? "

You can use your keypad to type a word document or long email if you don't want to use the playbook on screen keyboard. but because apple only gives one button to push iphone users would not know how nice it is to use a real keyboard on a mobile device! just kidding just kidding don't call the apple cops on me, just a comment.

No but really it acts like a keyboard for when typing a document. Kinda handy if your good with a mobile keyboard!

[CrackedBarry]

Although we're all injecting a bit subjectivity into our responses, this to me sounds more like opinion than actual advantages. In addition, this (to me) sounds more like an endorsement of why iOS is a better platform than Android. I am talking about hardware-wise; what does the iPad Mini offer that the current "giants" in the 7-inch world (Fire/Nexus) don't? 50% larger screen? going from 7 to 7.9 inches? I must be missing something here. The camera is the same camera found in the PlayBook, which is now 1.5 years old. The aluminum body might be pretty, but we've already seen how durable it is with the iPhone 5. The plastic might be cheap on the Android-based tablets but (so far) I haven't heard many people complain about the the body. With the PlayBook, the rubberized plastic backing is beautiful and feels great, in my opinion.

Well, let me elaborate then: The difference between a 7 inch and 7.9 inch display is bigger than it sounds like, since you get 21 square inches of space on the 7 inch screen, but 29 square inches of space on the 7.9 inch screen. That's a 35% difference, and I don't know about you, but one third the space is quite a bit more functional space in my opinion. If you asked most people whether they'd prefer a TV that gave them a viewing area one third larger than their regular TV, without significantly increasing the size of that TV, they'd jump at the opportunity.

If you then keep the on screen controls, that are necessary for Android in mind, you get up to 50% more browsing or reading area on the iPad mini screen compared to a 7 inch tablet.

Don't let the .9 inches fool you, it's actually a pretty big difference, that might be even more pronounced on the Playbook, because of the lower resolution screen that the Playbook has.

On to the camera. It's NOT the same camera found in the Playbook. Yes, they both have a resolution of 5 Megapixel, but the camera in the IPad Mini is light years ahead of the one in the Playbook. The Playbook camera is a fixed focus camera, the same kind found in the newest Bold, which is a shoddy replacement for an autofocus camera. It doesn't even come close in terms of picture quality and functionality. (You can't scan documents as well as with an AF camera or take Macro shots, for example.)

The iPad mini on the other hand, has the same camera that you find in the iPhone 4. It was widely regarded as THE best camera in cellphones until the 4S came along, and though you find better cameras in newer phones like the HTC One X or iPhone 5 these days, it's still a very good camera, and better than what you find in most cellphones with 8MP cameras today.

As for the body, if you prefer rubberized plastic, then I guess 130$ more for an iPad mini isn't worth it. But many people regard aluminum as a more exclusive, more premium material, and prefer the look and feel of it over the cheap plastic you find on Android tablets. The iPad Mini is also so much lighter and thinner than competing tablets* so 130$ more is worth it.

But it's really more of a premium device, than the competing 7 inch slabs. That's why you can't really compare them directly, and claim that the 130$ price difference is a deal killer, or will make people choose a Nexus, just like you can't compare a Lexus to a Honda, for example.


* You can't really count the Playbook among the competition btw, heck even RIM sorta admitted that in a tweet yesterday. The competition for the iPad Mini is the Nexus 7 and the Acer 210 and to a lesser extent the Nook and Amazons Kindle tablets.

[Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes]

Well, let me elaborate then: The difference between a 7 inch and 7.9 inch display is bigger than it sounds like, since you get 21 square inches of space on the 7 inch screen, but 29 square inches of space on the 7.9 inch screen. That's a 35% difference, and I don't know about you, but one third the space is quite a bit more functional space in my opinion. If you asked most people whether they'd prefer a TV that gave them a viewing area one third larger than their regular TV, without significantly increasing the size of that TV, they'd jump at the opportunity.

If you then keep the on screen controls, that are necessary for Android in mind, you get up to 50% more browsing or reading area on the iPad mini screen compared to a 7 inch tablet.

Don't let the .9 inches fool you, it's actually a pretty big difference, that might be even more pronounced on the Playbook, because of the lower resolution screen that the Playbook has.

On to the camera. It's NOT the same camera found in the Playbook. Yes, they both have a resolution of 5 Megapixel, but the camera in the IPad Mini is light years ahead of the one in the Playbook. The Playbook camera is a fixed focus camera, the same kind found in the newest Bold, which is a shoddy replacement for an autofocus camera. It doesn't even come close in terms of picture quality and functionality. (You can't scan barcodes or take Macro shots, for example.)

The iPad mini on the other hand, has the same camera that you find in the iPhone 4. It was widely regarded as THE best camera in cellphones until the 4S came along, and though you find better cameras in newer phones like the HTC One X or iPhone 5 these days, it's still a very good camera, and better than what you find in most cellphones with 8MP cameras today.

As for the body, if you prefer rubberized plastic, then I guess 130$ more for an iPad mini isn't worth it. But many people regard aluminum as a more exclusive, more premium material, and prefer the look and feel of it over the cheap plastic you find on Android tablets. The iPad Mini is also so much lighter and thinner than competing tablets* so 130$ more is worth it.

But it's really more of a premium device, than the competing 7 inch slabs. That's why you can't really compare them directly, and claim that the 130$ price difference is a deal killer, or will make people choose a Nexus, just like you can't compare a Lexus to a Honda, for example.


* You can't really count the Playbook among the competition btw, heck even RIM sorta admitted that in a tweet yesterday. The competition for the iPad Mini is the Nexus 7 and the Acer 210 and to a lesser extent the Nook and Amazons Kindle tablets.

the camera can scan barcodes

[CrackedBarry]

[COLOR="#FF0000"]
You can use your keypad to type a word document or long email if you don't want to use the playbook on screen keyboard. but because apple only gives one button to push iphone users would not know how nice it is to use a real keyboard on a mobile device! just kidding just kidding don't call the apple cops on me, just a comment.

No but really it acts like a keyboard for when typing a document. Kinda handy if your good with a mobile keyboard!

Seriously?

WHAT KIND OF USELESS, HALFASSED, RIDICULOUS FEATURE IS THAT?!?

Why not just type it on the phone, period? Or use a little Bluetooth keyboard with the tablet? Or type it on the tablets keyboard? If you seriously loathe onscreen keyboards to the extent that you'd prefer typing on a tiny phone keyboard, instead of typing on a 7 inch screen, then why did you get a tablet in the first place? A person that feels that way would just get an ultraportable laptop instead, no?

So I guess we're STILL waiting for somebody to explain what's exceptional about BB Bridge...
(And before somebody posts that you can control a PowerPoint presentation on the tablet from your phone, I'd like to point out that yup, you can do that on other tablets/phones as well. Same goes for using your BB as a keypad for a tablet game...)