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Research in Motion's 7-Inch 'PlayBook' Tablet to Target Business Users

ravenvii said:
Yes, the OS does look very nice. I'll see how it actually performs in the real world before I pass judgment.
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QNX is a proven OS for almost 30 years in the industry. It's not only used in cars, routers but especially in mission critical systems like airplanes or even the space shuttle.

The big advantage of QNX over iOS' BSD kernel is that QNX is a realtime OS (with the neutrino kernel). With QNX even under heavy CPU load you still have very low *guaranteed* response times to user input while on a non realtime OS like iOS the user interface messaging system just doesn't respond at all or very late. Also QNX is fully POSIX compatible so porting apps is very easy and ultra fast.

If you ask any professional developer why he has chosen QNX his answer is probably: architecture and reliability. QNX is one of the best mobile system OS out there. I'm really impressed that RIM has chosen to buy QNX and use it for their tablet.
 
*shrug* i personally think its not a bad intro product at all.

BuddyTronic said:
Way to go Rim - real original idea you have there!

What can you say about this?

All that money - all those suits - and no imagination anywhere to be found.

Nobody complaining about the lack of keyboard? Bwahahaha!

App Rocking - my ass Lol.
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Great to see some real competition out there! I look forward to the day that there are a good 4 or more slate devices to choose from :D

Why they call it a "PlayBook" and target it at Professionals, I don't know. They should open up their audience a bit, I'm sure many others would love this.
 
Called the PlayBook and called an "incredible gaming platform" by RIM, but targeted at business users??? Runs an OS completely different from their smartphone platform. Release date and price unknown. Specs will be less impressive by actual ship date.

This already smells of failure. Good luck, RIM.

I want to see what HP is going to do with WebOS on a tablet.
 
Brinkman said:
Why get this over say.. a laptop?

Don't get me wrong, I hate on the iPad just like any other tablet or netbook.
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Not going to pick one of these things up, but there are lots of reasons to get this over a laptop.
Like say, you work for a company that provides you with a laptop for work, but it's crippled by your employer and you have a long commute, or you travel a lot, or ... are you really going to carry 2 laptops??

Or say, you already have a desktop at home that you want for the power benefits it has over a laptop and you want something more portable that you can turn on instantly, but don't really need any processing power ... just a bit of portable eye-candy.

Or (and I have no idea if there's an app that'll do this but...) you're an architect, or media designer and you're visiting a client, wouldn't it look and feel a lot nicer to have a tablet that will allow your client to move through-out a proposed building site or move through the media you're pitching with their hands, on their lap? You bring it with you and say, "here take a look a this." To me that's more appealing than plunking a laptop down and saying take a look. It could be much more immersive and tactile (almost)

Anyway, don't want one, but just some thoughts...;)
 
LagunaSol said:
Called the PlayBook and called an "incredible gaming platform" by RIM, but targeted at business users??? Runs an OS completely different from their smartphone platform. Release date and price unknown. Specs will be less impressive by actual ship date.

This already smells of failure. Good luck, RIM.

I want to see what HP is going to do with WebOS on a tablet.
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QNX is a real-time Unix. I don't care about WebOS.
 
Part of the Blackberry infrastructure? It's a shoo-in, because IT departments hate to approve anything else.

Corporations can leverage the millions of Flash and HTML developers out there, to come up with nice looking enterprise apps... and to run the ones that already exist.

As mentioned, QNX is a professional realtime OS.

They're going to sell TONS of these to enterprises. How much that trickles down to consumers, is yet to be seen.
 
kdarling said:
Corporations can leverage the millions of Flash and HTML developers out there, to come up with nice looking enterprise apps... and to run the ones that already exist.
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They can leverage Unix and Java developers. That's even better.
 
marco114 said:
False, you can pay for Tethering on an iPhone.
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Paying for tethering won't help you share your internet connection with your iPad. You have to jailbrake your iPhone to provide wifi (instead of bluetooth or USB) tethering to do that.

PS: Paying for tethering is stupid. AT&T is providing no additional service and caps your data. It makes no difference to them if you retransmit your internet connection to your computer. They are still sending data (that you have already paid for) to your iPhone. They don't deserve anything for that, don't support it.
 
LagunaSol said:
Called the PlayBook and called an "incredible gaming platform" by RIM, but targeted at business users??? Runs an OS completely different from their smartphone platform. Release date and price unknown. Specs will be less impressive by actual ship date.

This already smells of failure. Good luck, RIM.

I want to see what HP is going to do with WebOS on a tablet.
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It's targeted at business users. i.e., users who own a BlackBerry. Business users have a life outside the office. It's a complimentary device to the BB.
 
Looks pretty. Small. I like the 9.7" iPad screen better me thinks but still looks slick. Sexy specs too.

Gruber is right though, it's release date puts it around iPad v2.0 and now Apple gets a good look at what it will be up against.

The apps worry me too. Blackberry apps suck horribly. Though iPad apps aren't exactly lighting my world on fire the way iPhone apps did...
 
sikkinixx said:
The apps worry me too. Blackberry apps suck horribly. Though iPad apps aren't exactly lighting my world on fire the way iPhone apps did...
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This is not a traditional Blackberry platform. This is a POSIX, Java, and Flash platform.
 
Wait a second. Did Apple's stock seriously drop this afternoon because of this device? There must have been a reason that it dropped.
 
smiddlehurst said:
Two things that stand out for me:

1) Availability in 2011 suggests that this won't be up against the current iPad but its replacement. Interesting that they'd announce this so far in advance and I can't help but wonder if RIM would have been better off keeping quiet until a little closer to the time.

2) The processor is.. interesting. Assuming that this is scheduled for the first half of 2011 (surely it must be if they're showing it now) then dual core A9's aren't far away. If the iPad is indeed on a yearly cycle and the new one rocks up in April 2011 then its getting increasingly likely it may be packing something similar to the Playbook. Considering iOS isn't exactly a slouch on the current generation that could be a major jump forward, especially if Apple can incorporate Grand Central (or a derivative) into iOS.
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I think this is 'keep the shareholders happy' announcement gieven their recent stock decrease

The specs look good. Now it's up to apple to respond
 
This honestly looks like the only good tablet to compete against the ipad. Everything else looks like crap.
 
Horus said:
OMG, they're advertising Flash support as a feature, how cute is that?
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Flash isn't going anywhere for a while. It also isn't coming to the iPad ever. I'd advertise it as a feature too if I were selling something like this.

The tablet wars have begun. Only winners here will be the consumers! Me and my wallet are ready. :)
 
Nice ad. Awful lot of websites with video. I didn't see a mention of Flash support. I didn't see a mention of price either.
 
swb1192 said:
Wait a second. Did Apple's stock seriously drop this afternoon because of this device? There must have been a reason that it dropped.
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Oh please. Todays drop was a minor fluctuation. I've watched it climb the last week to over $290 a share and I'm very pleased. I bought at $208 per share, watched it climb to over $270, then drop to the $230s and now back up. It looks to me that some people were taking advantage of the high price to sell. If will be over $300 soon enough.
 
This thing also has a brand new OS that RIM bought. I know why RIM had to do that, but it would have been a lot better if they had got the OS out the door a year or two ago inside a RIM phone. Now they will be a good 3.5 years behind. It is hard to believe this thing will present a refined user experience.

Again, what is the: Price, battery life, telco contract?

Those things will determine the possibility of this gizmo surviving more than all the specs in the world.
 
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