[shootsscores]

In a thread a couple days back, I described a chat with a Verizon employee who though they had the PB in stock at one point knew nothing about them except the urban myths. I was walking by the store today, had my PB with me, saw the guy and ran the PB through its paces for him. He was sold. Showed him the demo vid, the bridge function (including browsing), streaming flash (he gave me the store's wifi password), browser, bezel scrolling, etc.

"Why is there so much bad around about the PB?", he asked. "This is a great tablet. Going to buy one as soon as I can."

That demo vid blows people's minds.

What was weird was that in our previous conversation he wondered about how the PB accessed the web. He was still hung up on it until I showed him the how the PB connected to his store's router instantly.

The PB really is a great device whose potential has only begun to be realized. Congrats RIM.

[freedomx20a]

yes grats rim! I was an early PB adopter it has come a nice way with the many updates. 2.0 should be ULTRA!

i love love love my playbook. Never charged it for a day...just was on it surfing for 2.5 hours and played paper planes, and read the toronto star *press reader app*...love it!! Now its on timer mode on my desk *IN book stand case leather booklet* timing me to work for 30min. lol yeah im on cb slacking. I paused it. My 9800 is charging on the other side of the room and im bbming on my pb.

<3

Everyone who plays with my book wants one but can't afford one. Like my cousins come to my house and play with it and say "dam i love this i need one"

I told them "nobody really needs a tablet, its just a toy"



I'm struggling on the 9900...should i wait for qnx or just get 9900....My torch is only a couple months old...

use ur skills and sell me on a 9900 today!

[rickgainsmith]

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression...

Storm...
Storm 2...
DEAD

PlayBook 1.0...
PlayBook 2.0...
?

Great marketing is whats needed for 2.0... Fingers crossed they can turn it around!

[Dapper37]

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression...

Storm...
Storm 2...
DEAD

PlayBook 1.0...
PlayBook 2.0...
?

Great marketing is whats needed for 2.0... Fingers crossed they can turn it around!

great analogy, apples and large oranges. If thats the logic by witch QNX, PlayBook and the future superphones are based. Their doomed. I believe not, a bit simple perhaps.

[Blacklac]

I dont know why people compare the PB to the Storm series. Ive seen it a couple times. The only flaw of the PB is the feature set is incomplete. Sure, people may get lemons, but it really isnt missing anything obvious as far as hardware goes and its a top notch tablet for built quality. While I enjoyed my Storm 2, the PB is a much better product. The Storm series flat out had hardware issues and a very controversial screen technology. Quite different.

[Spencerdl]

I was wondering who do we actually blame for the constant lack of knowledge by sales persons. Do we blame retailers, management, department heads, or do we blame RIM for not properly educating the distributors who sell the PlayBook and or other RIM products. For not following up on advertising, for not helping by putting Blackberry Reps in key areas of sales, for not putting up their own display in retail stores. Sometimes products are not sold on name alone there is footwork that needs to be done. Ultimately the responsibility rest on RIM itself.

[Economist101]

I was wondering who do we actually blame for the constant lack of knowledge by sales persons. Do we blame retailers, management, department heads, or do we blame RIM for not properly educating the distributors who sell the PlayBook and or other RIM products. For not following up on advertising, for not helping by putting Blackberry Reps in key areas of sales, for not putting up their own display in retail stores. Sometimes products are not sold on name alone there is footwork that needs to be done. Ultimately the responsibility rest on RIM itself.

Retailers are to blame for the knowledge level of retail employees. As for RIM, I think they are aware that they can't rely on retailers to follow through on product sales, due in part to minimal demand. However, I'm not sure what the fix is; placing an employee at each retail location isn't cost-effective, and I'm sure they've considered retail stores and dismissed them for obvious reasons.

[kritikal]

actually the best solution would be to have a rep at several key stores, especially during christmas season. I used to work for a marketing agency that would train their employees and send them to hundreds of retailers to sell Rogers plans, Sirius XM and other programs.

Those reps ended up being more knowledgeable than the employees at the stores and the fact that they would get a comission would drive even more sales. Having reps is definitely worth it.

[ph03n1x]

the more u expose ppl to the device and potential would help to build the market imo

[Fnord]

I dont know why people compare the PB to the Storm series. Ive seen it a couple times. The only flaw of the PB is the feature set is incomplete. Sure, people may get lemons, but it really isnt missing anything obvious as far as hardware goes and its a top notch tablet for built quality. While I enjoyed my Storm 2, the PB is a much better product. The Storm series flat out had hardware issues and a very controversial screen technology. Quite different.

Doesn't matter if it's software or hardware related, the point is that you only get one chance for a 1st impression and RIM blew it for both the Storm & PB.

I loved my Storm 2 (every iPhone user a showed surepress to was amazed!), and iPad is collecting dust since i got a PB, but there is no question that RIM rushed both to market and didn't follow either up with adequate marketing.

[dpdave]

I was wondering who do we actually blame for the constant lack of knowledge by sales persons. Do we blame retailers, management, department heads, or do we blame RIM for not properly educating the distributors who sell the PlayBook and or other RIM products. For not following up on advertising, for not helping by putting Blackberry Reps in key areas of sales, for not putting up their own display in retail stores. Sometimes products are not sold on name alone there is footwork that needs to be done. Ultimately the responsibility rest on RIM itself.

In many ways, RIM is obviously at fault. I quite normally have a news channel running in the background when at home or office, and don't recall seeing an ad for the PB in ages, if ever. I also rarely come across a sales person who can demonstrate the depth of knowledge about the PB that I garnered by simply setting mine up.

On the other hand, I walked into my local Office Max yesterday, to pick something else up, and found the PB demo model turned off, with a dead battery, and the usb charger broken. When I said something to the sales guy, he told me it had been busted for a month or so. How do you expect to sell stuff when you can't even turn it on?