[peter9477]

Releasing when they did meant they could have developers with a solid year's head start on being familiar with the platform.

We had only a crude simulator from December 2010 till April 2011, and trust me when I say it was not the best way to develop solid apps.

I could make other points like that, but suffice to say that if you take the whole Big Picture into account, it's absolutely not a black and white question, and in any case is totally a moot point. Why rehash things?

There's no changing the past: look to the future... it's very bright now.

[bounce007]

For anyone else that says this is a 'moot' point:

According to OxfordDictionaries.com (Definition for moot - Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English)), moot is defined as subject to debate, dispute or uncertainty

Hence, why we are discussing/debating this point...

[blue-b]

They couldn't do what they felt they needed to do with the bb os, they went with qnx which they felt would allow them to do what others were doing, and/or leapfrog in some respects as time goes on. It is an extremely painful process to change your architecture, but you have to do it sometimes. It takes a lot of work, and effort to implement something like this, I'm sure they had no intention for it to take this long, and their early iterations probably didn't have the results they wanted. Seeing OS 2.0 it looks like they have an architecture they will be able to build upon, and as they get more experience and smooth things out it will only improve, and it will also come quicker as they get better working with the architecture.

IOS is at 5.0, it has had multiple iterations at their os, and android has too. Looking at 2.0 I saw a lot of cool features, and if given the time to mature, I'm really excited with what the future will bring.

I think it was a shame the events have rolled out as they have in the 9 months, but I also work in application development and know the difficulties, and these types of choices are extremely hard to make, and usually are not clear cut. I don't think anyone could make a clear cut case whether it was bad or good. It is what it is, and they have to just keep working at executing their plan, and keep evaluating how they are doing, and take in user feedback in the process.

I'm looking forward to 2.0.

[Barredbard]

'Horrific' 'vilified'... you really have a knack for using over-emotive words.

We can agree to disagree... you think initial reviews were all bad, I know not all were. I am not deluded by my enthusiasm for BlackBerry products and there should be no illusions as to how 'complete' of a tablet the PlayBook is at this moment in time. I too want the PlayBook and RIM at large to succeed.

By the way is 'renege' a common word in legal/law circles? My girlfriend (a 3L student) uses that word ever so often lol

By all means, let's agree to disagree. I was searching for positive reviews to show to my boss at the time, so I know of what I speak. As for using "over-emotive words" I would posit that I am simply calling it as I see it. That is probably another item that I would be pleased to agree to disagree on.

Renege is actually not particular to the legal realm; in fact it is more common to speak of the breaching of a contract than of reneging on a promise. A breach of contract has legal ramifications. Reneging upon a promise does not.

Most men would heave a sigh of relief to know that in most instances, if they promise to marry a fine lass, that fine lass cannot later turn around and sue them for failing to follow up on it. If, however, the man was foolish enough to sign a contract, and the fine lass makes some sort of sacrifice in order receive the benefits of the contract, such a player might soon find himself in legal trouble. The kind which money would solve.

[1959gazza]

Perhaps the playbook should have been released as a complement to a bb phone instead of a stand alone iPad competitor.

[bbmme]

Hmmm tough, I had to go with no.
Either way, they wouldn't win. If they did not release it, people will be upset and if they did. Well you saw what happend eh. Plus if they did release it in time with os2 people will still complain eh. Haha

[nasa25]

The integrated contact feature in 2.0 is a beast. RIM needs more of this....innovate, new ideas.

RIM should have integrated expected features (native mail, autocorrect,etc) in OS1 and kept these other gems (like the integrated contact feature) for OS2. At least the ship is being righted come OS2.

Now RIM just needs a bit of that apple-esque marketing genius to bring the new and improved playbook to the masses.

[kbz1960]

I voted bad move. An exception for me would be releasing it to users only that wanted to be beta testers.

[kb5zht]

It simply was not a finished product. I didn't err. RIM erred by waiting almost a year to implement these critical changes which won't arrive on time to save it from the new sleuth of tablets that are crashing into the market in 2012.

Well said. The thing that really frustrates me, that really puts the burr under my saddle, is that RIM proverbially fumbled the ball that would have won them the superbowl. This device, if released with what was promised, would have been phenomenal. By the time it is finally finished, it will be run-of-the-mill, not cutting edge.

[thymaster]

They should have release it 2 months after the announcement. The hype was there but it soon faded away when the device was release 7 months later.

[DaveTheA]

Releasing the PB as it was last spring wasn't a bad move...I believe the problem was in promoting it as a finished 'professional' tablet when it was very clearly not ready for prime time, as promising as it was.

Assuming that RIM ever had a settled, thought-out plan for how to release the Playbook and its upgrades, they would have been far wiser to announce it as a preliminary product, with upgrades TBA...all the while keeping users and customers firmly in the loop as improvements were made.

Instead [IMO] they released it too soon, promoted it badly and maintained a dead silence about upcoming plans and upgrades and app releases, thereby creating a flood of FUD and hurting the whole Blackberry brand as a result.

[peter9477]

For anyone else that says this is a 'moot' point:

According to OxfordDictionaries.com (Definition for moot - Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English)), moot is defined as subject to debate, dispute or uncertainty

Hence, why we are discussing/debating this point...

Correct. I hope you don't think I misused the word... look at the context in which I used it and you'll see it was perfectly correct. I was responding to those who seem so certain this is clearly the one or the other thing... it's not clear, it's quite debatable, it's not going to lead to any final conclusion: it's moot.

(If your post, which immediately followed mine and therefore seemed like it might imply my use of the term was incorrect, wasn't directed at me at all, then no problem... I'll take it as merely supplemental. :-) )

[bounce007]

Releasing the PB as it was last spring wasn't a bad move...I believe the problem was in promoting it as a finished 'professional' tablet when it was very clearly not ready for prime time, as promising as it was.

Assuming that RIM ever had a settled, thought-out plan for how to release the Playbook and its upgrades, they would have been far wiser to announce it as a preliminary product, with upgrades TBA...all the while keeping users and customers firmly in the loop as improvements were made.

Instead [IMO] they released it too soon, promoted it badly and maintained a dead silence about upcoming plans and upgrades and app releases, thereby creating a flood of FUD and hurting the whole Blackberry brand as a result.

I agree with you. They needed to get a foothold in the market but the factors you mentioned contributed to the sub par reception the PlayBook has had. I refuse to believe a 2012 release with the same hardware specifications (and OS2 features) would have been better. 2012 would have been too late... unless the hardware was upgraded.

[beemaabeemababy]

Although I feel somewhat disappointed that the PlayBook got such bad press on release, it was kind of exciting to see such regular updates to the PlayBook every month.

It's nice to see something progress and evolve into what will be (in my opinion) ultimately the best platform for tablets.

[bill 9876]

Hello, to all playbook user,Im new here and just wondering when in Feburary is to 2.0 up grade being released,,,,,,,,

[Pearl9100]

'Horrific' 'vilified'... you really have a knack for using over-emotive words.

We can agree to disagree... you think initial reviews were all bad, I know not all were. I am not deluded by my enthusiasm for BlackBerry products and there should be no illusions as to how 'complete' of a tablet the PlayBook is at this moment in time. I too want the PlayBook and RIM at large to succeed.
l

I think those words are appropriate to describe those reviews. However, I can't say I fault them or called them biased. The pb really couldn't do much out of the box when it was first launched. That is no secret.

So should they have waited until when they completed the upcoming features to release it? How would it then fare arriving much later in a saturated market?

Yes. They should have waited. I wouldn't release a half baked product that isn't ready for prime time and lacks some of the most jarringly basic features that made blackberry phones so successful. Dumb move. Saturated or not, you cannot compete with other companies with half baked products that lack the most basic features. I wouldn't buy a blackberry phone if it didn't come with a native email client. So why would I buy a pb doesn't have it either?

[rcab]

I could not vote for either choice. I feel if they waited they would be in a similar situation where there were playing catch up with the IPAD2 and rumored soon IPAD3. But at the same time I feel by releasing the PB and then not providing the features that will be coming in Feb back when it was talked about being there in 60 days after release. I spent $600 on a 32GB PB because I thought at the time that RIM was providing something that would be the king of tablets. As stated by others I think so many loyal BB owners have long since abandoned the BB ship. I do not believe this release coming in FEB 2012 will bring back in swarms the people who have left. I know many who had BB products but know of no one who is talking about coming back to RIM products any time soon. In fact when my Torch 9800 is eligible for upgrade I will not buy another BB unless it has been documented by everybody has doing what RIM claims! I will not make that mistake again.

[yzf.shaun]

RIM released the pb too early but it may have been wise to release when they did. OS2.0 is now probably a significant enhancement over what it would have been had it not been for all us early adopters doing tbe bega testing for them.

[bounce007]

Hello, to all playbook user,Im new here and just wondering when in Feburary is to 2.0 up grade being released,,,,,,,,

Welcome to CrackBerry.com Bill! Hey have not set a specific date for the release of BlackBerry Playbook Tablet OS 2 however you can keep up to date by visiting the official BlackBerry blog every now and then.

Enjoy and keep posting!

[bpdude]

They released it at the right time but told fairy tales. That latter was the bad move.

[morph_ca]

It wasn't too early to release the playbook when they did in the shape that it was without os2. What they erred in is in the pricing model. They should have priced it $350,$450 and $550 for the 16gb, 32gb and 64gb models respectively.

[Harley Kid]

I truly feel it was better (at that point) to release something ... incomplete or not, in order to even remain in the tablet race. Had BB done nothing and waited, IMO, the BB bashing would have swayed more people away from this platform allowing Android and Apple to increase their margin by the number of people that would have given up on waiting for the playbook and OS 2. I also believe that any action, significant or minor, is better than no action at all.

[sagec]

IMHO, permanent pricing should be:

$249 for 16GB
$299 for 32GB
$349 for 64GB

[Pearl9100]

I truly feel it was better (at that point) to release something ... incomplete or not, in order to even remain in the tablet race. Had BB done nothing and waited, IMO, the BB bashing would have swayed more people away from this platform allowing Android and Apple to increase their margin by the number of people that would have given up on waiting for the playbook and OS 2. I also believe that any action, significant or minor, is better than no action at all.

I get what you're saying, but Rim sold less than 1 million tablets. So Rim obviously did not sway very many people to buy their product over the ipad or android. The numbers simply do not support your stance/perspective.

[[email protected]]

IMHO, permanent pricing should be:

$249 for 16GB
$299 for 32GB
$349 for 64GB

They won't sell at $349. New consumers won't understand why the price increased by $150 after the sale ended. They should drop the $16gb back to $199 and price from there.

Hopefully Goldman Sachs will advise them on some strategic moves they need to implement by 1Q end.