Discussion on:

RIM's spectacular technology demise

I have been using the "failed technology" (as you call it) of Playbook since last summer with absolutely no problem! The smooth and most powerful web browser of any tablet allows me a full internet experience and easily accessing my email. Galaxy and iPad which I tried felt more like toys to me. The weaknesses of RIM are caused by a huge MARKETING failure, and a constant bashing by the media. Just look now how the press is "in love" with the Kindle Fire, which is in fact a weak and incomplete version of the Playbook. Nothing is really wrong with RIM phone and tablet technologies. Quite the contrary. I encourage consumers to do their own researches before giving too much credit to biased articles like this one.

I don't know what all the RIM bashing is about. Maybe because Apple was first and it's not just like an iPad? I wasn't an early adopter with Playbook, but when they dropped the price by $300, it became an impulse buy and well worth it. The Bridge works fine for synching email, but I will be happier when two devices are not needed. There are a few bugs as you can expect with a first release, but nothing to make it "half-baked."

I think the author has never tried a Playbook but instead just parrots the bad press from everywhere else while claiming to be neutral.

I was like Cartman, waiting for his new Wii, from the moment I heard about the Playbook!! I bought mine as soon as I could and embarked on a 6 week trip to Europe, Playbook in hand. I had a great time and my Playbook was a big part of the enjoyment.

I read all the reviews coming up to its release and I got what I expected to get, and what's more, I love it much more than I thought would. It goes everywhere with me and stands in for my laptop on short overnight stays. It always works, battery charge lasts forever, takes great pics and 1080p video and .... it fits in the small bag I always take with me (man purse) snugly nestled against my daytimer when it isn't in my hand. If I was a slave to my phone and forking out a small fortune to a cell provider for a data plan I'm sure I would be in Nirvana with bridging, tethering, enterprising et al. I love my Blackberry Bold with it's actual keyboard and I love my Playbook tablet. Thank you RIM, keep up the good work.

I have a Playbook and I love it.
it solves all of my, former laptop, needs.
It pairs with my Blackberry and that is the power of it.
I have a Mac and an iPhone and I love them for other reasons.
When it comes to getting work done for work about work, the BB/Playbook is a killer combo.

There's nothing wrong with RIM, the Blackberry, or the Playbook. What's wrong is mostly in people's heads. When did our perception of IT change from expecting it to change on a quarterly basis for improvement to NEEDING it to change, just for the sake of change? I like the iPhone and the Android devices, although I have a Blackberry. I'm comfortable using any of them. Patrick is right when he mentions the Blackberry isn't as 'fun' as the other options. But since when did 'functional' and 'practical' take a back seat to 'fun' in the business world?

This is what I don't understand. Each device has it's place, but the negative hype against RIM seems to be driven by:

A) Technical Columnists; These people decry the lack of options and 'openness' that Android provides, or the number of apps that Apple and Android offer. But while they may be able to deal with Android's myriad options and a constantly changing interface, the non-technical users (which are the majority, usually older or strictly business users) usually have problems. However, people don't think of this until it's often too late, and since these writers are the 'experts', they should be listened to...;

B) Perceived Lack of Innovation: Sure, RIM's devices haven't changed much over the past few years compared to Apple and Android, but that's because they're solid, stable, and they WORK. The car hasn't changed much over the past 40 YEARS. You don't see people demanding 6 wheels or two steering wheels or other drastic changes because last year's models are so... LAST YEAR. Our company was choosing between two products, one was solid, 'stoic' and not very innovative. The other was new, modern, and had model changes every two years with flashy features. We went with the latter, which was plagued with problems from being new and unproven. We suffered a lot of downtime. I cycled out that product with one from the former company and, despite it's being 'old technology' and not as flashy-looking, it works BETTER;

C) North American Business Model: Did NOONE learn anything from the tech bubble bursting or 2009's crash? Once investors see a drop in growth (not a loss, but just a drop in PROFIT) they cry 'failure' and look for the 'next big thing' to ride as long as they can. Heck, these RIM shareholders that are calling for the company to be divided and sold off seem to just happen to own firms that specialize in DOING JUST THAT. Isn't that funny? I don't suppose they stand to profit from that happening...;

D) Media Hype: A combination of the previous three, with the media's sensationalist spin to blow it completely out of proportion. Sure it's one of the largest companies in the World, with tons of sales and profit...but they're THIS close to bankruptcy! Honest! This hit home to me when I was on vacation, and I went to help a fellow traveler that was lost. I fired up Google Maps on my BlackBerry and this older lady exclaimed, "Oh, is that one of those BlackBerrys? I thought they weren't making those anymore..." Thanks a lot, media...

Well, if things keep going the way they are and we lose RIM for whatever reason, I know that IT support teams and users probably won't miss them until they realize they're stuck with what's left...

The playbook seems a decent device. RIM's problem is, their key market is enterprise email, and they charged about $30/mth per user for the privilege. Now that anyone can get email on their smartphone, WITHOUT having to pay this $30 charge, RIM is losing money. They still do well since Blackberry Enterprise Server, despite being rather crap sometimes, is a useful bit of software for administrating phones. However, they are sliding down a slippery slope and I don't see anything for them to grab onto unless they come up with something totally new.

Hi have also been using the Playbook since December '11. I have tried the Nook Color,Pandigital and I must say for quality,look,ease of use and features the Playbook is the best of the ones I have tried. I think the IPad is too big for me so this 7" tablet is just what I need. As for an email client,I can use Gmail and have my email in a flash. No problem. I have had no problem with any of Playbooks features. It is a winner for me and I would buy a Playbook again! Thanks RIM!

Reading an article such as this one makes me wonder if I should spend any more time reading articles here. I came here to learn from supposely "expert" people in the field but clearly that is not the case. I mean sure everyone is entitled to their opinion but this article is clearly about someone who got hooked up by media and bad press on RIM and someone who didn't do his homework on the playbook. The people posting comments here obviously knows the product contrary to the Patrick who just posted a review based on what he read elsewhere. If you want to loose credibility this is the way to go. Anyone who I talk to who owns a Blackberry or a playbook is happy with their product. Don't listen to some guy who has no clue!

Is RIM under a targeted attack by the media? I love tech stuff, but have never owned a Blackberry. I didn't know much about Research in Motion except that they were a successful Canadian tech company. I bought a Playbook, based on hands on, in store testing and a lot of very positive user reviews. Maybe it's just me and 99% of the other purchasers that bought one, but I can't find much to dislike about this amazing little piece of technology. It has a wonderful, solid quality feel and it just seems to do everything well. No push email? That's the deal breaker? You know what... it doesn't make coffee either. I'm afraid I don't believe much I read anymore...

Nor should you, good readers. Make up your own minds. Don't believe me either... get out and grab a Playbook, an iPad and whatever Android tablet you can get your hands on and figure it out for yourself. You'll probably end up buying one of these sweet little 'failures'.... I did.

Was trying to please the idiots in the media and the players in the stock market, by trying to appear as all things to all people.
Who else provides the secure infrastructure that they do?

RIM's apologists and executives called the iPhone a "toy" when it was introduced. I saw too many of them claim "Hey, we're BlackBerry. No one will leave us." What they should have done was make a bee-line for the corporate board room and begin to innovate. Instead, they held on to what they thought people wanted instead of developing what consumers actually purchased.

Apple and Android took something from "cool" to "useful." But they didn't stop there. Now, they went from "useful" to "necessary." And it doesn't appear they are satisfied with that. RIM is still stuck on yesterday's necessities.

Just because something is solid doesn't mean it will sell.

I think the issue is that the PlayBook took too long to get to market and had too few features compared to the iPad. It is being compated to the iPad, because that's the standard that has been set.

All of the Executives in my environment that have been issued PlayBooks have returned them and are now all on iPads. The buggy aspect of connecting your BlackBerry to your PlayBook to read emails and look at documents is what doomed the device in my environment.

This is what happens if out of touch management (read as L/B) influences product development and design too much.

I'm still using a Blackberry 5 Device (Tour) and have a Playbook 64. I have had an Iphone and 2 Android devices. I was disappointed with random reboots, battery use and freezing. Now that we know Google is monitoring everything we do (including this post) I would never go back to Android, in fact I suspect that all the poorly vetted apps will not only make Android data vulnerable but Linux as well, as they are based on the same code. Google cracking the Ios browser means Iphone is now vulnerable as well. I'll stick to my Blackberries; at least Google hasn't cracked them yet. Probably too small a market, thanks to the press.