[qwerty4ever]

I think the PlayBook symbolizes a lot of what BlackBerry's traits are. Great potential and hardware, people had high hopes, but BlackBerry's poor followthrough, and little to no marketing.

Agreed wholeheartedly. BlackBerry PlayBook could have marked the resurgence of the company formerly known as Research In Motion. Unfortunately BlackBerry is not going to survive under Thorsten's Reign of Ineptitude.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10

[lnichols]

,

How does BlackBerry - with no content store, other people's distribution centre make money?

Well you need much of this same content now to compete in the smartphone space now to and they are no longer an iconic brand that can sell at top dollar as sales of BB10 devices are showing so not looking good!

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[--TommesJay--]

Samsung (18% marketshare) doesn't have content to distribute.

BlackBerry on the other hand has music, movies, and TV shows.

When Heins said "Tablets themselves are not a good business model", he is demonstrably wrong. This graph proves it.

http://i.imgur.com/wOVoJ4y.png

What does that prove?

Samsung has 18% because some people are dumb enough to actually spend money on a Samsung tablet, just because Samsung has mindshare and is hugely popular. But at least they HAVE content, Google Play!

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[Moonbase0ne]

I think he only said that because he doesn't think BB is able to make a tablet right now, that can compete and be profitable.

[xandermac]

Apple takes 73% of tablet market revenue even with only 40% marketshare. The others each make a little money off of tablets, enough to keep them in the game. RIM lost their ares on theirs though.

73% of quarterly smartphone and tablet profits belonged to Apple | iMore.com

It's a competitive market for sure, but it's a myth that it's only Apple who's able to make money.
Source: Android Ahead Of iOS Tablet Market Share - Business Insider

Think about it. If only Apple is making money off tablets, why are the other manufacturers still in it? Why are they gaining market share? If they are losing money then you'd think they would quit the market like BlackBerry right? But that's not whats happening. They are actually ramping up their tablet efforts?

In any market there are winners and losers. The Surface RT (not the entire Surface line), the Xoom, and the Playbook were losers. That doesn't mean there can't be winners.

[notfanboy]

Apple takes 73% of tablet market revenue even with only 40% marketshare. The others each make a little money off of tablets, enough to keep them in the game. RIM lost their ares on theirs though.

73% of quarterly smartphone and tablet profits belonged to Apple | iMore.com

The article you quoted says "73% of quarterly smartphone and tablet profits". iPhones and iPads are in the same pie, you can't conclude from this that iPads in isolation also makes 73% of the revenue.

But even that is beside the point. Even if you make "a little money" by making tablets, by definition that makes it a viable business model. Even that is an unsupported assertion. Just because Apple takes the a disproportionate share of the profits, that doesn't mean that the other players are just making "a little money." The facts are the tablet market is exploding and more players want to enter it - this is evidence that there is money to be made.

[RubberChicken76]

Well you need much of this same content now to compete in the smartphone space now to and they are no longer an iconic brand that can sell at top dollar as sales of BB10 devices are showing so not looking good!

Yes, but not my point. Phones are an easier business model for BlackBerry (at least right now) because they can hide a lot of the costs in a carrier contract, which amortizes the costs over time. They get a lot more for the Z10 or Q10 (or even Q5) than they were able to get for the PlayBook. They also get service revenue for enterprise devices attached to the devices and the BlackBerry 7 devices get BIS service revenue ... at least for now.

There's a reason why the Z10 and Q10 are getting the love and the PlayBook is not ... regardless of how well anyone thinks the Z10 or Q10 are doing or should be doing.

[xandermac]

The article you quoted says "73% of quarterly smartphone and tablet profits". iPhones and iPads are in the same pie, you can't conclude from this that iPads in isolation also makes 73% of the revenue.

But even that is beside the point. Even if you make "a little money" by making tablets, by definition that makes it a viable business model. Even that is an unsupported assertion. Just because Apple takes the a disproportionate share of the profits, that doesn't mean that the other players are just making "a little money." The facts are the tablet market is exploding and more players want to enter it - this is evidence that there is money to be made.

Absolutely there is money to be made! The others will split the balance of the pie between themselves. Samsung is making great strides in that direction and will probably overtake Apple at some point then they'll share over 90% of the revenue and leave a few scraps.

[Speedygi]

This is why I think BlackBerry has to enter the tablet market at some point. There is a market there and, accordingly, there is market share to be shared (and gained). Just not this year, is my take. Next year though they must make a move, I certainly don't want to see just Android and Apple tablets fill the stores.

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[Solar 77]

I hope that when BB10 gets to have more apps, we see a new tablet come around though with all the bad press about the Playbook, it seems unlikely.

Posted via CB10

[Speedygi]

I hope that when BB10 gets to have more apps, we see a new tablet come around though with all the bad press about the Playbook, it seems unlikely.

Posted via CB10

But one has to take into account that the PlayBook was released under different management.

However, the sad flip side is that probably the stigma will stick, no matter what...but it does give BlackBerry some added challenge to win back the trust of the customers, yes?

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[m1a1mg]

What does that prove?

Samsung has 18% because some people are dumb enough to actually spend money on a Samsung tablet, just because Samsung has mindshare and is hugely popular. But at least they HAVE content, Google Play!

Posted via CB10

If people are dumb for buying Samsung tablets(which I think is just wrong), what does that make the people who bought Playbooks?

[notfanboy]

If people are dumb for buying Samsung tablets(which I think is just wrong), what does that make the people who bought Playbooks?

Corollary: since the PlayBook didn't even make a visible dent in the marketshare reports, does this mean that there weren't enough people who were dumb enough to buy PlayBook's?

[Speedygi]

That is absolutely hilarious, haha...

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[johnnyuk]

But one has to take into account that the PlayBook was released under different management.

However, the sad flip side is that probably the stigma will stick, no matter what...but it does give BlackBerry some added challenge to win back the trust of the customers, yes?

Posted via CB10

The bigger problem would be the damage to BlackBerry's image with retailers that the PlayBook's failure to sell caused.

If I were a retailer I'd be very wary about stocking my shelves with another BlackBerry tablet that might sell as poorly as the previous one. I'd be amazed if any retailers would touch it with a barge pole no matter how good it was and how great BB10 or 11 turned out to be on a tablet.

The biggest problem right now is that BlackBerry can't make a profit on a tablet that has the spec to run BB10. It can't compete with Apple and Android on app ecosystem attractiveness so it can't price the hardware at comparable premium levels and that's not profitable at all.

There's no easy way out of the hole that the PlayBook has left them in. It would be a brave move to enter the "smart" tablet world with a "dumb" screen device. The dumblet market is unproven and does not currently exist in any meaningful way. It would be a huge mistake to jump in to it too soon with an engineering-led product but no real consumer demand, understanding or obvious benefit for the average consumer other than price especially with such cheap Android tablets available that are "smart" and not dumb.

The consumer just won't understand why they would ever want a tablet that is useless to them unless they have their phone with them nearby, turned on and it has enough charge in its battery to last the distance. Batteries need to develop far beyond their currently capabilites if smartphones are going to be the hub of mobile computing.

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[heymaggie]

Apple made the right choice when they chose iOS for the iPad rather than OSX because the transition for the consumer was pretty seamless - their favorite iPhone apps - native or third party - either worked with the same UI or had iPad specific UI. For Blackberry customers, the utility of a Blackberry tablet is less clear. With the Playbook, the most important Blackberry-specific attribute - hyper-communication - was hampered by the lack of independent operation.

if Blackberry wants to get into the tablet game, not only do they have the failure (and abandonment) of the Playbook to overcome, but also the notion that they just got into the tablet-making business while the competition is on their 4th or 5th generation. Moreover, the new tablet would run BB10 which most Blackberry users aren't even using so you're asking them to adopt a new operating system anyway. So, why stick with Blackberry rather than a more established platform?

[gg bb]

As a consumer I'd prefer a future where no one would be interested to buy a tablet or for that matter laptop without 4G that would be like a TV that had no digital tuner. As such tablets would be dead. Tablets should just be like bigger phones or phablets whateverr.... and laptops just tablets with keyboards. I don't much like tablets. They can't do what my phone can do, they can't do what my laptop can do...just lowest common denominator products fir the IT illiterate.

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