“Remember the good old days when companies would announce a product and then actually ship something? RIM doesn’t,” Jim Dalrymple writes for The Loop. “They seem to think it’s okay to just keep announcing vaporware and not ship anything.”
• In September 2010 RIM announced the PlayBook, an iPad competitor running the BlackBerry OS. That hasn’t shipped yet.
• In January 2011 RIM announced the PlayBook 4G, upping the ante on its competition by including the next generation data connection. That hasn’t shipped yet.
• In February 2011, RIM outdid itself and announced the PlayBook 4G LTE, HSPA+ and Mobile WiMAX models. They haven’t shipped.
Dalrymple writes, “That’s three generations of PlayBook tablets announced in five months and we still haven’t seen a single product make it to market. The media seems enamored with the PlayBook and don’t ask the obvious question — where are the products? So, I will say what most people are thinking at this point. RIM, SHUT UP AND SHIP!”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Shutting up isn’t a very effective way to run a buyout dog and pony show. Neither is shipping a failed product. Just ask Rubenstein et al. over at Palm HP.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Branwdo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
RIM: ‘BlackBerry PlayBook’ battery will last ‘a full day’ – January 13, 2011
RIM half-CEO Jim Balsillie: ‘PlayBook redefines what a tablet should do’ – December 17, 2010
RIM’s half-CEO Lazaridis’ tablet and smartphone ‘strategy’ makes Ballmer’s sound coherent – December 8, 2010
Now, they are obviously waiting for iPad 2 to appear. Then, they will announce another imaginary PlayBook upgrade.
Speaking of which…
I’m beginning to think that when Apple does finally introduce the iPad 2, it will be available on that day. Seems like we’re getting awfully close to last year’s release date.
Has anyone noticed if iPad supply is drying up in the channel yet? They may be waiting to sell off most stock before making an announcement.
Apple will probably announce iPad sometime in March, and start shipping it a week or two later in order to give time for pre-orders.
The supply of current iPad model will probably not dry up, since they are expected to sell it alongside iPad 2, so they need to keep making them.
I don’t expect the existing iPad to continue. Like the original iPhone, it was extremely successful, but Apple learned a lot from producing “version 1.0.” All the new iPads will incorporate those refinements, including changes that help lower production costs.
While I think the iPad 1 will stick around with a $399 price tag.
Vapor costs less to ship.
It’s so….airy.
Yeah, but the revenues from that vapour are not exactly stellar…
Vapor revenues, Predrag, vapor revenues. Kinda like CDO’s.
After the iPad 2 ships… RIM will announce the PlayBook 4 😉
So, how does the PlayRook compare to what Microsoft is currently not shipping?
And is there a Fantasy Tablet League…?
I think you’re on to something. Maybe they’ll just ship as an app.
This is a great idea. The Playbook and MS tablet app for iPad. All the great features they keep talking about on a product that actually exists.
Well they just need to keep reminding everyone that they do have a product that will eventually make it to market, hopefully.
This happens with new Apple products as well, not because of Apple continuously reminding everyone, but because of the constant free press Apple gets, positive or negative. The iPad gets a lot of press, especially when a new tablet is announced. They always pit themselves against the iPad; Playbook vs. iPad, Galaxy Tab vs. iPad, Xoom vs. iPad, Android 3.0 vs. iPad, TouchPad vs. iPad.
That’s a lot of free press and is the #1 reason why the iPad will continue to lead in mind share by a large margin. This is the same phenomenon that helps keep the iPhone in the public eye all year ’round, even though only 1 model is released in a year.
Think about the fact that Apple has publicly talked the iPad only twice in one year’s time: at the introduction and the release of iOS 4.2, and yet the iPad is in the news EVERY DAY!!!
All the Apple haters were flying off at their foaming mouths about the Adam from Notion Ink. I thought it had actually been manufactured and started to ship. Where are all the reviews? Gee, can I be cynical enough to postulate that there are reviews, and they all say it sucks? It was so truly grating and annoying to listen to all tirades about the iPad, and how the Adam was going to be The One to Wait For. Que sera sera.
Maybe RIM forgot to order enough touch panels to actually make more than demos. Apple already bought 60% of all supplies for the year. The rest of the eager beavers probably have put cash on the rest. RIM management is not about to embarrass themselves by revealing mismanagement moves. They will probably trot out some R&D delay BS.
I hear that the PlayBook2 is incredible. It’s so light that it’s practically nonexistent. And the battery life is infinite. It runs on mental waves.
The Siamese twins from RIM just need to shut up. Who the hell has two CEO’s? Oh, that’s right. It’s a company from Canada, where you can find a country within a country.
At first these cynical, calculated announcements of vapourware were irritating.
Now they’re funny.
The playbook is virtual with advanced artificial intelligence, just buy the blue pill from RIM and go to sleep. You can purchase the pill at: http://www.Playbook.Matrix.com
Introducing… The VaporPad®.
7 USB ports
7 HDMI ports
7 Firewire 3200 ports
1 Infrared sensor
Sony MiniDisc optical drive
Sony Blu-Ray drive
Made completely of TruVapor (patent pending) — LiquidMetal’s got nothing on us.
Actually, shipping a failed product wasn’t that bad of move for Palm, but given RIM’s track record with the Torch, I can see why they’re not anxious to release anything.
I belie there will continue to be a market for iPad v1. There are companies which would likely prefer not to have cameras in their devices for corporate security purposes. May be a market in education also, especially if the price point drops to say $375 with education discounts.
Apple provides a mechanism for disabling the camera. This should be a non-issue for enterprises.
From the article:
“He (Jim Balsillie) also said, “I think the PlayBook redefines what a tablet should do.”
Really, Jim? You had no idea what a tablet was until the iPad was released and now you’re an expert on redefining an entire market.”
In the immortal words of Clara Peller, “Where’s the beef?”
This Just In: There will be a major announcement about the PlayBook on April 1st. You’ve been fooled!
RIM are making more money with the Playbook than Microsoft and Google made with Kin, Zune, Nexas… put together ! No wonder they don’t want to release.
Amidst all this humorous sarcasm- which I honestly laughed at… Like “introducing the vapourpad”… There were some kernels of truth.
RIM has firmly established now they don’t care if they are late to the game. ALL of the games including smartphones. Therefore they have no reason to gripe that their marketshare is falling either.
I think not just the torch but the storm made them jittery. They don’t seem to realise waiting so long to make sure everything is perfect is a flawed business model because it won’t ever be- they admitted it will need constant firmware updates (“evolve” I think was their term).
Remember the show where the huge screen behind balsillie said “the world’s first multicore tablet”? Lol! Lol! Lol! I am still laughing at that! The xoom is out right now and advertising, two things you can’t say about the playbook- and its still unclear when they will release it. All the models in youtube videos and the mwc show were DEMO, not fully functional. When asked at mwc to show portrait mode they said those units weren’t able to!!!!
Conclusion; VAPORWARE.