Dear Mike L. suggestion on OS2 delay and selling 1 million Playbooks by Christmas
Dear Mike L.
I hope this letter finds its way to you somehow.
First of all, I'd like to say I love my Playbook as it is and if I were to buy a tablet tomorrow, it would still be the BlackBerry Playbook. It is the only secure tablet out there, it supports flash, the Bridge app saves me $50.00 per month vs 3g equivalent and there are tons of apps and games arriving almost daily. I love video chatting with my wife and kids, my four year old loves the Spiderman game and if there is one good thing about the Kindle Fire it is that it confirms the 7" form factor is awesome.
However, the recent announcement that OS 2.0 will be delayed until February was a concern to me because it could have terrible repercussions for the Christmas sales and because some Playbook buyers feel that people in your team lied to them about the Android Player. Functionally I don't need it but I see the future potential. Still, the issue is one of trust.
I've read about your generous contributions to worthy causes and was impressed with your gift of 100 dollars in free apps for an outage that although unfortunate was actually understandable. When a competitor built a phone that dropped calls because of the way it was held all that was offered was a five dollar bumper. So, I think relatively speaking, RIM really exceeded my expectations on the fix for that one. So, I feel pretty comfortable with RIM and the way RIM stands behind their promises.
There are many competitors salivating at the possibility that RIM will stumble because you have a security system they will never be able to match and with your 70 million users, they will do everything to help you stumble.
The sales people that get bigger commissions for selling 3g tablets are not helping either. I've purchased four Playbooks for my family and at each store I've practically had to fight the sales person to get to see a Playbook and had to listen to a bunch of lies about how terrible it was.
So here are three suggestions that should sell over 1 million Playbooks in the U.S. by Christmas and make 99% of current Playbook users (your biggest sales force) happy. Obviously there is that one percent that will never be happy but the 99% matter.
#1.
Separate the android player from the other goodies on the OS2 release; especially the movie player, and start releasing them as soon as possible. Further, acknowledge that some of us purchased the Playbook because of the android player that has not come and, to help kick off BlackBerry Movies, give every Playbook user and future buyer $100.00 in free movies until the Android Player is released.
#2.
The sales teams are really not helping BlackBerry at all. Seriously, if you read the blogs, those of us that purchased Playbooks have had to basically fight to even see a working model at the stores and listen to a bunch of incredible lies to get them. Here is how you fix that.
Have an OTA update with an APP called "Why The Playbook?", the current video is nice but it does not show the daily magic. Use this video/app to show people using Video chat, show someone opening an account for a client knowing that it is the ONLY tablet secure enough to transmit sensitive personal information, show how portable it is, show a kid playing spiderman, someone playing NOVA2, how DataViz Docs to Go is free with BlackBerry, a video of how awesome viewing a Flash website is vs. a device that does support flash, and show someone logging in to their gmail account via the app or web, which has been available from day one.
If the sales force won't help you then have a video that tells your story.
#3.
Until the android player is available lower the price of the Playbook across the board to $399.00 for new buyers. This will sell the Playbook and once the android player is out the raise the price back to $499.00 again.
None of these suggestions are based on technology but on marketing. Perception is reality in some ways. People that know the Playbook will go back up to 499.00 when the android player is released will rush to purchase before that because everyone likes to get a good deal, and to be fair, it was suggested that it would be be available six months ago.
I don't know if you can get this past your board but I honestly think this would spark Playbook sales and shut up the naysayers. I have a friend that regrets leaving BlackBerry and loved my Bold 9930 but said that he was not sure BlackBerry would be in business next year. Honestly, this is ridiculous but that is the media spin and it won't help. Lets just shut them up right now.
Good luck.
Regards,
Mark Jimenez
P.S. Thank you for releasing the Bold 9930. I can finally say I love my BlackBerry and would have no other phone, even if it was free.