[Ratchet clank]

It just kind of fell off the map. Even online interest is gone. What happened? Itdoesn't seem to out dated. It had quite some consumer interest. Heck, phone carriers seem to be ignoring it to.

WWhat's your opinion? I think it was better than the transformer prime and not far off from iPad 3____ I mean " the new iPad"

[westcoastit]

1) It shipped in a functionally broken state, no built in email client for a business tablet? Ridiculous.
2) It was priced at a huge premium for a 7" tablet. $599 for a tablet that couldn't even handle email and was half the size of an iPad. Doomed by hubris.
3) Confusing interface made in-store demos an exercise in frustration.
4) No app support.

[chm985]

After all of the updates the playbook has received over the last year it is 10 times the tablet that it was when it was released. Now it should be rated as one of the best tablets on the market.(minus the lack of some major apps such as netflix, skype etc.) I can't even put my playbook down now, can't wait to get bb10 on it! Then it will be the best tablet on the market hands down!

[fernandez21]

It was over priced with incomplete software at launch, and now almost 2 years later it has pretty great software but now lacks the hardware power of newer tablets. BB10 will make the software even better, but RIM needs to launch an updated playbook with new hardware to get people talking again.

[LiamMontana]

It seems to me that they just rushed getting it on the market. Now, a year or two on, it's a brilliant tablet. I've only had mine a week or so now but it's 100% on par with the iPad. I now have an iPad and a Playbook in my household and there isn't much in it at all. I personally prefer the Playbook.

[goku_vegeta]

It was over priced with incomplete software at launch, and now almost 2 years later it has pretty great software but now lacks the hardware power of newer tablets. BB10 will make the software even better, but RIM needs to launch an updated playbook with new hardware to get people talking again.

Keep the same format factor, bump up the screen resolution, increase the RAM to 2 GB, and add a quad core CPU. NFC isn't necessary but might as well throw that in. I'd buy that at the original PlayBook price if they did that.

[fernandez21]

Keep the same format factor, bump up the screen resolution, increase the RAM to 2 GB, and add a quad core CPU. NFC isn't necessary but might as well throw that in. I'd buy that at the original PlayBook price if they did that.

While I would pay a premium for a new playbook with updated hardware, I don't think I would $599 for it. $399 with at least 32gb storage, updated quad core processor, quad core graphics, 2gb ram, higher resolution screen, and updated radios (bluetooth 4.0, faster wifi, agps) I would get it.

[howarmat]

mike and jim...

[TomJasper]

Old news, many have moved past rehashing the past, come join us, brighter on the new Thor side.

mike and jim...

[pchapple13]

I haven't seen a commercial for the PB since launch. Maybe a little advertising RIM?

[axllebeer]

I'm happy to be the underdog. The PlayBook is getting better all the time. Show me any other tablet that gets the software updates the way the PlayBook does? There is none. Price, lack of apps, native PIM, no carrier support were the main culprits at launch. Now it just has a terrible name for itself.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm an early adopter with no regrets and I'm still using it daily. I've enjoyed seeing how things have evolved. But that's me talking and not the average consumer. Still burns me that there is no Netflix support for the PlayBook. (I know I brought it up, again) Moving on though...

But a tablet that's slated for a major update (BB10) at nearly 2yrs old? Come on, The old RIM might've really screwed up the launch of the PlayBook, but the fact that they are still planning to fully support it at this point really shows that they are standing behind it and trying their damnest to make up for those mistakes.

[BB_Bmore]

PlayBook right now for me right now is a great device. Why else would I use it everyday? I could care less if it's flying off the shelf. I think most people would enjoy it very much so if they tried it for a week. With that said...bring on the Z 10

[Dapper37]

I paid 700$ for mine in the grey market in Thailand 1 week after launch. A hefty price sure. I've used it everyday sinse. Still love it. Its my "daily driver" been waiting to use daily driver.
This bad boy still looks like the day I bought it! WTF, I've never seen an item ware so well!! Not one visable scratch on it! Unbelieveable! Did I say I love it!
Bring on BB10!

[blueberrymerry]

Sounds like a bunch of Symbian users

The Playbook's current software is pretty good but it was nowhere near ready when it was launched. Waiting almost two years for proper software to appear takes a lot of dedication. I hope RIM won't disappoint us by not releasing BB10 for PB.

[jwn66]

1) It shipped in a functionally broken state, no built in email client for a business tablet? Ridiculous.
2) It was priced at a huge premium for a 7" tablet. $599 for a tablet that couldn't even handle email and was half the size of an iPad. Doomed by hubris.
3) Confusing interface made in-store demos an exercise in frustration.
4) No app support.

Fixed!!

[jwn66]

mike and jim...

shots fired

[joshua_sx1]

^^Hmm... so if the BB10 will be a success, it is because of "Thorsten"...

Make sense anyway... :-)

[RubberChicken76]

1) It shipped in a functionally broken state, no built in email client for a business tablet? Ridiculous.
2) It was priced at a huge premium for a 7" tablet. $599 for a tablet that couldn't even handle email and was half the size of an iPad. Doomed by hubris.
3) Confusing interface made in-store demos an exercise in frustration.
4) No app support.

I agree with your points though I find 3 a bit harsh. :-) I prefer 'different' to confusing. It's not a hard product to use but it is a bit different from what's out there. Anyone I've ever shown it to is flying like a pro after two minutes, once I explain the gestures. But yeah, they needed to explain.

Also, the marketing was kind of nerd marketing vs. benefit marketing. Commercials about flash and multitasking without explaining what it meant.

If only it launched 6 months later, at $349, with 2.0 (mail, calendar, contacts, Android Player) and was marketed by commercials like this:

[RubberChicken76]

mike and jim...

They can always say "I made a $19 billion dollar company from nothing." and no one can take away from them what they contributed to RIM.

Let's move on from their mistakes. We all make 'em and I doubt many of us have ever stood in their shoes

[ibpluto]

The current version is pure goodness......but they released a half baked OS at launch. Perhaps it's true, you never get a second chance to make a first impression

[RubberChicken76]

The current version is pure goodness......but they released a half baked OS at launch. Perhaps it's true, you never get a second chance to make a first impression

One thing I noticed in my social network:

- There were three or four early adopters of PlayBook who bought it at full price when it came out. I think most of them brought it back to the store (in disgust) a little while later due to the issues raised in the thread.

Later, RIM dropped the price, released 2.0 and filled in many of the missing pieces. Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies< Dead Space and other games started coming out on it too.

Then, this new wave of friends (about 30) bought the PlayBook. They use it every day, they quite like it. Many of them don't even own BlackBerrys. They just wanted an affordable tablet and they got it. And love it. One person took hers back when she "heard RIM was discontinuing the PlayBook" and told me she regretted it when she saw new updates and the LTE one get announced.

At least in my little microcosm, it got a second lease on life. People didn't want it as a half baked $499 iPad competitor, but ate it up at the $200 and less price point with its more mature platform.

[Thunderbuck]

It was over priced with incomplete software at launch, and now almost 2 years later it has pretty great software but now lacks the hardware power of newer tablets. BB10 will make the software even better, but RIM needs to launch an updated playbook with new hardware to get people talking again.

I dispute that the hardware's outdated. iPad Mini is roughly the same hardware.

[Banco]

I dispute that the hardware's outdated. iPad Mini is roughly the same hardware.

Which does show badly they stuffed up the initial release of the Playbook that you can have a device that powerful, that long ago and still make a mess of it. Pity.

[Thunderbuck]

The PlayBook launch has to rank among the most spectacularly bad launches in tech history, and it was motivated by a weird combination of hubris and desperation.

The hardware was excellent. Even now, it's still decent, and it will absolutely shine when BB10 comes down the pike. Even beyond the components, the industrial design was restrained, solid, and classy. Yes, the power button in the early production runs was a pain, but most PB users hardly ever use it anyway.

The OS was very good. And the UI was (and is) elegant and intuitive.

As has been noted (repeatedly, in this and many other threads), critical software wasn't ready. There was a panic to try to launch against the iPad 2, which was disastrous in many ways. Not the least of which: they missed even THAT deadline by a month. And how they thought the BlackBerry brand name carried SOOO much weight that it gave them the right to price on a par with the iPad remains beyond me.

Had the Playbook launched, say, in August, with a decent e-mail client and $150 under the iPad, they probably would have done quite well.

[RubberChicken76]

And how they thought the BlackBerry brand name carried SOOO much weight that it gave them the right to price on a par with the iPad remains beyond me.

With some of my (non) techie friends, the size of the screen also caused dissonence with the price. They likened it to LG trying to sell a 40" tv for the same price as a 55" Sony TV.

Had the Playbook launched, say, in August, with a decent e-mail client and $150 under the iPad, they probably would have done quite well.

Yeah! I don't think any circumstance would have had the PlayBook be a leader, but maybe we'd have 6 million PlayBooks in use by now instead of 2 million.