Two good things happening for the BlackBerry PlayBook
by Volker Weber
In its latest earnings call RIM disclosed they shipped only 200,000 PlayBooks in their second quarter. That is two days worth of iPads. In order to sell through the excess inventory, RIM is taking a loss and drop the price of the PlayBook significantly. I am expecting a 299 price point.
In October the PlayBook will also receive a significant software update, bringing native email and calendaring to the device so that it no longer depends on a companion BlackBerry. The software update and the lower price are going to make this a really compelling offering.
Comments
Typo?
"shipped" not "sold". - quoting RIM here: "During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 200,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets."
do I need another BB contract if I want to use the PB 2.0 without pairing my bold?
A PlayBook that doesn't require to be paired with a BlackBerry is a great - and necessary - move. That was seriously limiting their market, especially given that BlackBerry's market share has been falling.
Karl, the PB currently is a Wifi-only device. You don't need any contract to use it. I do not expect this to change.
Yes Volker, I know that. But with the Firmwareupdate 2.0 comes a Mail-Client.
And how will that work without BIS?
How does your computer connect to a mail server without BIS?
I don't believe that they will act it like a normal mail application, because of the business customers and the existing BB-Infrastructure. They have to integrate it in the normal BB-World.
If they don't why then buy a Playbook? There's no argument left for a IT-Admin in a big company.
The mail client will serve as a front end for personal mail. This data can reside on the PlayBook. Business mail will remain on the BlackBerry.
Since BES does not support more than one device per user, it's not possible to have both a BB and a PB talk to the same account, much like you cannot have two BBs serving one account.
RIM was best placed for the business consumer market and tablet devices. Completely missed the opportunity.
And coming out with a device that requires tethering seems cumbersome. Don't know why they didn't design the PB with a BB "holster" to drop into the back of it, making the tethering appear invisible and give business users the options without having another device to carry around...
The Blackberry Playbook was a "fail" from the start. RIM targeted it at Business customers but lacked true integration with the BES server and also created a kludge to get around the limitation of one device per user on a BES Server (another bigger fail). They then created commericals that showed video which ahem, business customers don't watch at work and showed flash support , games? not sure what that is good for on a business device. Finally they touted a fast processor and a multi-tasking OS that most BES users are not concerned with considering Blackberrys are horrible slow at both areas.
Even slashing the price will not help at this point and with all th Android and iPhone applications for the those tablets currently on the market, it does not look good for the playbook as a business device. As a game device for watching video, movies, playing games, checking your web based email, creating art, looking up a movie show time, opening a map on a trip, reading a book, doing shopping, could be a winner with the small size.
My 2 cents
