[shingi_70]

Was wondering this myself as the playbook was one of the first devices to be a 7 inch tablet running a non phone OS. However it has been lukewarm both critically and lukewarm despite having a somewhat cult following.

So why is it that now this year the 7 inch form factor has boomed with so many other guys being successful with it as well as other others annoucing products in that form factor?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[faceless_el]

Was wondering this myself as the playbook was one of the first devices to be a 7 inch tablet running a non phone OS. However it has been lukewarm both critically and lukewarm despite having a somewhat cult following.

So why is it that now this year the 7 inch form factor has boomed with so many other guys being successful with it as well as other others annoucing products in that form factor?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

1. Sales staff at big box stores like BestBuy don't support the product. Last store I went to, the sales rep dismissed the PB immediately as an inferior product vs the iPad. Who would buy it if the store doesn't push and sell it.

2. Not a lot of apps vs. iTunes app store (or Android Market, even though you can run some android apps on the PB now)

3. marketing is not at good as apple iPad's. Up here in Canada I haven't seen any TV ads for the PB

[TRlPPlN]

oh no. i'm not going to fall for this bait. ill have someone else bite and get hooked..lol

[cletis]

One word: Brand.

The BlackBerry/RIM brand has no marketing presence to speak of, and what brand recognition it has is split between a small number of appreciative cognoscenti and the majority, who associate it with old technology and impending doom.

[bb624]

Agree big box stores, Att and verizon have hurt the BB and the PB..it's up to the Salesperson's likes and knowledge what they sell. In my travels people are quite surprised that BB offers a tablet.

[greatwiseone]

The PlayBook is frankly a better corporate issued device than a personal device when it was first launched. Once the name is tarnished, there's no going back. I would strongly expect the PlayBook to be rebranded to something else when RIM is ready to do a new tablet.

[KOOLWATER]

The OS has caught up and has really matured....

1) Browser is faster
2) Bridge is more stable
3) We have email now!
4) Waaaaaaay, I mean waaaaaaaaaaaaay more apps available now as opposed to launch.
5) Guaranteed to be rocking the latest and hottest OS in the tech world in just a few months

BUT

No one knows...




Average Joes don't search forums and stay up with BlackBerry happenings. When was the last time you saw a PlayBook commercial........ If ever?




I rest my case.

[FF22]

It now has a bad rep combined with, relatively speaking, limited apps. It also is probably not on many store shelves anymore.

[lynxs_claw]

Marketing, maturing app ecosystem and bad press.

Anyone I talk to about the playbook either has no idea of what it can do, know that it doesn't have the big name apps (yet) and/or thinks RIM's going out of business especially since most of their friends don't have one.

And there it is.. a great little device that most people don't know about or don't care. It's unfortunate

[EWY]

Love the OS on the Playbook. Like the multitasking but the Playbook:-
Lacks cross platform video chat. No MSN/Yahoo/Skype support.
No hand writing recognition.
Lacks support for some languages (e.g. Chinese/Japanese/Korean).
These are just a few functions that my old AT&T Infuse could do and it is not even a high end phone. The phone is running an old Android 2.2.1 not even the latest firm ware.

[samab]

Why would you declare 7 incher to be a "boom" at all?

The biggest selling 7 incher is the Kindle Fire --- and even the Kindle Fire has been declared a sales dud after last year's Christmas quarter.

If Amazon sold a lot of them, they would have given us an actual sales figure.

Same thing for Samsung --- have you seen the court documents where Samsung swore up and down that their whole mobile group doesn't make much money for the last 3 years and that the actual sales figure for their tablets is only a small fraction of the numbers floated by idiotic bloggers.

There is no such thing as a successful non-ipad tablet --- all these companies are not listed in the US (Samsung, HTC, LG, Lenovo) and their PR people will hype any sales numbers they want (and bloggers will take that as the truth). Basically you can only trust 3 companies' numbers (Apple, RIM and formerly independent Motorola) because they are listed in the US and can't hype sales numbers that are not true.

[kevinnugent]

Why would you declare 7 incher to be a "boom" at all?

The biggest selling 7 incher is the Kindle Fire --- and even the Kindle Fire has been declared a sales dud after last year's Christmas quarter.

If Amazon sold a lot of them, they would have given us an actual sales figure.

Same thing for Samsung --- have you seen the court documents where Samsung swore up and down that their whole mobile group doesn't make much money for the last 3 years and that the actual sales figure for their tablets is only a small fraction of the numbers floated by idiotic bloggers.

There is no such thing as a successful non-ipad tablet --- all these companies are not listed in the US (Samsung, HTC, LG, Lenovo) and their PR people will hype any sales numbers they want (and bloggers will take that as the truth). Basically you can only trust 3 companies' numbers (Apple, RIM and formerly independent Motorola) because they are listed in the US and can't hype sales numbers that are not true.

The Nexus 7 is a runaway success, though.

[Darlaten]

Its a simple answer: the Playbook is a RIM product. And the RIM brand has become so tarnished; so synomous with obelescence; with the brand being known as the brand that can't do that, the public simply has no time, no confidence, nor desire to purchase the Playbook.

Another person commented that the Playbook name was tarnished; I agree. But I would take it one step forward, the name RIM is tarnished. And its that reason why the Playbook never took off.

[samab]

The Nexus 7 is a runaway success, though.

No official sales figure means its all complete guess.

[outofoffice]

No official sales figure means its all complete guess.

I think you can make an educated guess based on every store selling out, sales being pulled from Play as they couldn't keep up with demand, etc, etc. The Nexus has sold like hotcakes.

[nextcity]

I did not even know there was a PlayBook until I saw them on sale at buy.com in June. I purchased at big box stores my various Ipads, my Asus Transformer, and my Toshiba Thrive...never once ever seeing or being shown by a salesperson a PlayBook. I have never owned a Blackberry phone, which I also attribute to not knowing about the Playbook. I hate my Droid Razr, and will get a BB10 when it comes out. My Ipad and Android tablets are hardly used by me anymore...and without question when I get a BB10, the Android tablets will be sold (as I will no longer have an Android phone)...the Ipad, I will keep, however, simply for viewing Netflix and Hulu Plus on a larger tablet (but should RIM put out a full-sized tablet and get Netflix and Hulu Plus apps...then the Ipad can go also).

[bounce007]

Anyone else feels like the entire tablet craze has died down?

[nextcity]

Anyone else feels like the entire tablet craze has died down?

No, just the opposite. I believe tablets will continue to explode in sales and popularity. The Nexus 7 popularity, the upcoming mini Ipad, Amazon and Barnes and Noble having to top the Nexus 7, everyone who currently has a dual core wanting a quad core processor tablet...I bet tablets outsell all other forms of computers combined over the next several years.

[Bla1ze]

One word: Brand.

The BlackBerry/RIM brand has no marketing presence to speak of, and what brand recognition it has is split between a small number of appreciative cognoscenti and the majority, who associate it with old technology and impending doom.

Bingo!

Plus, big name apps.

[smartie88]

The OS has caught up and has really matured....

1) Browser is faster
2) Bridge is more stable
3) We have email now!
4) Waaaaaaay, I mean waaaaaaaaaaaaay more apps available now as opposed to launch.
5) Guaranteed to be rocking the latest and hottest OS in the tech world in just a few months

BUT

No one knows...



Average Joes don't search forums and stay up with BlackBerry happenings. When was the last time you saw a PlayBook commercial........ If ever?




I rest my case.

To be frank with you,even app world doesn't want me to know their apps. i have tried to search a few apps and it always gave me irrelevant result.

btw,way more apps than launch means nothing. way more apps than google play and Itune means a lot

[axeman1000]

All down to drinking the big gallon of crapple koolaid and not realizing how amazing this device is. But instead of typing on here for it seems like the millionth time and already know someone will come on here and say the ipad toy is better anyways, I will leave this opinion one more time then go and watch a video I copied to my playbook from my computer over wifi on my big screen tv through the HDMI port at 1080p quality. And yes the playbook does do that.

[Hawnz]

Not saying the PlayBook is a bad buy or anything, but most people want the latest greatest gadget, not one that is over a year old.

[jhanks64]

I think RIM is saving its money for BB10 launch.

[smartie88]

I didn't see a lot Apple ads too

[wayoung]

Bingo!

Plus, big name apps.

Like e-mail ? I'm pretty sure even RIM has stated that the number 1 reason the playbook failed was the lack of native e-mail on launch.

I still find the current e-mail (and, since the last update, the browser) extremely flaky.

I'm surprised at the number of people saying they never saw an ad for the playbook - I don't see them on TV often now (it is 16 months old, although I did see one on a staples back to school ad today) but for the first couple months they were quite common here in Ontario - along with RIM all the box stores and Telus were advertising it (Telus advertised it as a companion piece to a bb phone) and it still has a prominent place in most electronic stores flyers here.

I agree with the person saying it isn't surprising you don't see much of it anymore because it is nearly a year and a half old - as solid of a device as it is I doubt it is superior to its current Android competitors (although it's price makes it a viable alternative to newer android models) - and they arn't running an experimental OS for a new line of phones.