“It’s been half a year since Research in Motion unveiled its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet based on the QNX operating system. This week, RIM began shipping the 7-inch tablet,” Galen Gruman reports for InfoWorld. “After spending a couple days with the final product, it’s clear that the PlayBook is a useless device whose development is unfinished.”
“I knew the prerelease reviews were negative, and I had my own concerns after seeing a PlayBook demo in January,” Gruman reports. “But even those didn’t prepare me for the profound disappointment that is the PlayBook. Why did RIM bother shipping it?”
Gruman reports, “In the six months since RIM announced the PlayBook, observers like me have raised concerns and questions. RIM executives basically said their customers like the direction RIM had for the PlayBook and naysayers would see the truth when the product launched. If RIM’s customers really liked what they saw, then they deserve what they got.”
“But I doubt that RIM actually listened to customers or outsiders — the train wreck is just too complete for there to have been anything other than heads deeply buried in sand. Still, it’s one thing to see an impending train wreck and fret,” Gruman reports. “It’s another to view the aftermath — it’s a lot worse than I could have imagined, and it feels awful to look at it.”
Gruman reports, “Why RIM chose to ship the PlayBook in such a state is unfathomable. The iPad 2 and Xoom have been out for weeks, so there’s no heading them off at the pass. Instead, the PlayBook debuted with all eyes on it — but instead of a world-class performer, we got the homeless guy who plays air guitar in front of the mall.”
Read more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yet another lovely review for Dead Company Walking.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “elarson99” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
RIM launches PlayBook to no lines – April 19, 2011
RIM’s half-CEOs whine: It’s not ‘fair’ that our ‘superior’ tablet is getting bad reviews – April 15, 2011
Pogue reviews RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook: Half-baked, buggy, and missing important features – April 14, 2011
RIM’s half-CEO Lazaridis walks out of BBC interview – April 13, 2011
Research in Motion’s half-CEO admits to being clueless – April 11, 2011
Gassée: ‘The inmates have taken over the asylum’ at BlackBerry-maker RIM – March 28, 2011
RIM shares drop as marketing chief leaves company on eve of supposed PlayBook launch – March 4, 2011
Analyst: RIM’s expensive, flawed PlayBook tablet will be poorly received – February 1, 2011
RIM’s half-CEO: We think customers getting tired of being told what to think by Apple – October 18, 2010
Steve Jobs: I don’t see RIM catching us; Android is a fragmented mess; 7-inch tablets will be DOA – October 18, 2010
Damn. So tell us how you REALLY feel.
Not that you’re wrong or anything.
Peace.
Olmecmystic
Phew!
Maybe Monkey Boy will loan them some chairs.
Yeah, you think the Xooms and Playbooks are bad…wait ’til Microsloth gets involved…AGAIN!
Actually, I think a Microsoft tablet is better than the PlayBook. At least you can get email on it.
“Instead, the PlayBook debuted with all eyes on it — but instead of a world-class performer, we got the homeless guy who plays air guitar in front of the mall.” WOW – That is quite a put down to homeless people – being equated to a RIM Playbook.
the reviewer is wrong about one thing: It didn’t debut with all eyes on it. The only people who cared were tech reviewers.
Another abomination by men in suits, who think they can drop a few hundred million and “take” market share.
That’s not fair!! 🙂
More ringing endorsements for Adobe Flash, too:
Flash objects are often slow to load, and some would not function. That’s an issue Flash also has on Android, as my colleague Neil McAllister discovered in his extensive Flash tests. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that Flash and mobile don’t mix.
And people still wonder why there’s no Flash on iOS.
I noticed that paragraph too. And I thought, jeez, Steve Jobs has been saying that for four years now.
@spade
Let them wonder. People who know, know.
“…but instead of a world-class performer, we got the homeless guy who plays air guitar in front of the mall.”
Diet Coke, meet computer screen.
Ouch…that was a little harsh.
Well, now when the RIM Co-CEOs resign and an ex-MS manager takes over as the new CEO and brings Windows Mobile OS to RIM, the train wreck will indeed be truly foreordained.
Mathew Miller & Joel Evans of ZDNET Mobile Gadgeteer “The BlackBerry PlayBook is now available for purchase and after several hours I think I might just have found my favorite 7 inch tablet.”
Wow. This guy loves it. lol
Only one of the CEO twins is a sales guy.
Hard to believe, isn’t it?
Damn, Even MDN would be challenged to come up with such a scathing criticism.
I bit the bullet and went to see the debacle first-hand on launch day. I went to a Staples in Midtown Manhattan, which one of their busiest locations in NYC.
No one was handling the demo unit and no one was waiting on me for a turn handling it. Next to the device was a laminated sign stating that new customers were required to download a new verion of the OS “which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete on a high-speed network”.
Spending about 20 minutes with it, the UI was almost completely lost on me. Trying to get to any kind of “home” screen was beyond frustrating, so matter which direction I swiped.
Based on the reviews, my limited time with the device and the total lack of interest that surrounded its debut (by customers), I think RIM has pulled one of the most disasterous consumer electronics product launches I’ve seen in the last 5 years.
Now you know why we have a world full of criminal politicians, wars, genetically-modified food, cars that only make 20mpg, houses that cost 100 times their real value, golf courses on farm land.
Business idiots in suits from the 1950’s are, somehow, running the world.
The ‘playbook’ clusterf*** is simply another symptom of our malaise.
Not surprised to see all the Mac-heads on this forum gloating with glee at the negative reviews.
Clearly the Playbook didn’t create the same zing that the IPad did for all the Apple-Zombie’s out there. I honestly believe that if Apple released the ‘i-Turd’, there would be line-ups of squealing fans who couldn’t wait to get their hands (and noses) on the i-turd.
Anyhow, I don’t have either. I’ve considered getting the iPad, but it too had a laundry list of issues (some of which were resolved with the IPad 2, many still remain). Do you guys honestly believe that Apple would have released the iPad 2 with the features it did, if the Playbook wasn’t being developed?
Competition is good, and Apple is going to get a fair amount of it from RIM. Once 3G (4G) is released on the Playbook, along with the Android Apps and Blackberry Apps Player, the PB (with it’s portability and Flash capability) will outshine th IPad 2.
Of course, I realize that Ipad 3 is probably already on the drawing board, which is a good thing.
I hope Playbook does have lots of success, which would push apple to make even better products, which in turn would make PB 2 and 3, etc….we all win!
7″ will never outshine 10″.
You’ve been talking to my wife, haven’t you.
Good competition is good. RIM rushing this out with all of the issues is just not smart. Yes, iPad2 was better than the original, but there was nothing to compare the original to. WIth the bar being raised by iPad2 and to a degree, Xoom, Playbook makes no sense. Almost looks like the co-ceo’s want to get axed and take their golden parachutes.
The folks parroting the “competition is good” line need to qualify their statements a bit.
For example, if you had a car race, but only one race car showed up, would you go out and get a bunch of kindergarteners on tricycles and expect them to compete against the race car? According to the “competition is good” brigade, yes!
Meaningful competition is good. But right now, as things stand, the iPad really doesn’t have any. If RIM wants to cement the impression in buyers’ minds that the iPad is their only real option, then they’ve done a fantastic job.
Yes, sensible competition is good, but unbridled competition is very very bad for everyone concerned. The competition out there right now are not competing in the real sense of competition, but are out there to copy, grab market share and create trash. Just like food is good for the body but excessive consumption of food is very very bad. Also cancer is a form of excess that will destroy the body. Therefore cancerous competition is no good. And I think Google is the cancer of American competition.
Apple doesn’t need to release an “I-Turd” device, the competition has already released several.
Is that you Annoymouse?
My prediction … RIM will sell 1,440 per day … because there’s a sucker born every minute.
+1
…best line yet
Anyone who knows Apple knows that they don’t need competition in order to “get off their asses” and innovate. They didn’t need competition for the iPod, they didn’t need it for the iPhone, and they didn’t need it for the iPad when these devices first appeared. Over the last 14 years (since the return of Jobs to the company), Apple has consistently showed how to creatively innovate and build products that consumers will embrace. Along the way, we did have the G4 Cube (apparently, not that popular), as well as the original Apple TV (fairly small traction outside of the core Apple user audience). In other words, the number of those “Apple Zombie’s” [sic] (or, correctly, Apple Zombies) are fairly small; the rest of Apple’s users are actually ordinary people who want a good product that works well. So far, Apple has been the only one to consistently deliver such products. Others have tried to follow with varying degrees of success.
Yes Apple users will abandon Apple if Apple create trash as has happened in the 1990s. So Apple critics who treats every Macusers as zombies are just sour grapes of the vitriolic type.
@Anonymouse: “Do you guys honestly believe that Apple would have released the iPad 2 with the features it did, if the Playbook wasn’t being developed?” – A resounding YES as Apple sees themselves as the real competitor.
competition? no I’m not worried about iPad competition
EXCEPT
that maybe Jonny Ive and the rest are laughing so hard at the ‘competition’ they can’t work…
@Anonymouse: Whilst I agree with your comment relating to the glee displayed here (this really should be MacDailyGlee – and that’s not a compliment), you’re being disingenuous when you state, “the PB (with it’s portability and Flash capability)” – all reviews I have read have concluded the Flash player makes things decidedly worse by being present and poorly functioning, allowing many to view the web’s many Flash ads but not interact with the many Flash sites (I recall one reviewer noted that his PB crashed on EVERY FaceBook Flash app.)
Any Apple watcher with a certain amount of perspicacity will be aware that Apple would rather ship devices that are feature incomplete (lacking Copy and Paste, f.e.) but highly polished and functional, than a poorly-functioning one with every feature under the sun.
DISCLAIMER: I have a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 3GS.
I just did a google search for blackberry playbook and this is the top item…
http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/21/6507893-blackberry-playbook-sells-50000-first-day
Do you think google might be biased in their search results ?
That report comes from a subsidiary of The Royal Bank of Canada, RIM’s banker du jour.
Take it with a grain of salt. Hell, use the whole shaker. 50,000 in the channel, yes, I believe that.
I have to weigh in here. There is a lot of group think going on with respect to the Playbook. I’m a devoted Apple user but have to carry a BlackBerry for work. I’m on day two of trying out a PlayBook and I must admit that it may result in the retirement of my iPad. The Playbook works well as a first generation device. The software is a little buggy, but I’m sure that will be fixed. The big thing is that the PlayBook is THE ONLY tablet that will give me seamless access to my corporate email, the ability to review files, etc. I can already see that it will make life substantially easier. While the iPad would never have been a realistic alternative to traveling with a laptop, the PlayBook (on certain trips) will be.
I think if you check out BlackBerry-centric websites you will see that the reviews are much more positive. While the PlayBook will likely never compete with the iPad, it does provide a sizable market with a very desirable product.
John, if the PlayBook is THE ONLY tablet that will give me seamless access to my corporate email, then your IT department is blocking all the others.
The software is a little buggy, was the software on your iPad like that? Do you actually own an iPad?
Blackberry sites are optimistic that one day the PlayBook might work for them and with their Blackberry phones.
…”Blackberry sites are optimistic that one day the PlayBook might work for them and with their Blackberry phones.”
And the key word here is one day.
To use PlayBook’s mail, calendar, addressbook etc., you need a Blackberry with the ‘Bridge’ app installed. AT&T still does NOT allow you to install it (you have to go to ‘Crackberry.com’ to figure out how to do this in violation of your AT&T contract). Here is another quote from the article:
You have to be careful about the distance between your PlayBook and BlackBerry — the Bluetooth connection can’t go much beyond 10 feet, at which point the BlackBerry apps disappear from the PlayBook. The apps don’t automatically reconnect when you’re back in range; you need to open one for Bridge to reestablish the connection, which can take up to a minute.
I have a feeling that most of those who like the PlayBook like it because they really, really WANT to like it very much.
wow you are a complete moron and know nothing of what you are saying. I bridge my phone and playbook and get at least 60 feet range. phone stays connected and if wifi on both is turned on, it goes into efficiency mode and send the data much easier with less power drain. go suck steve jobs moldy cock.
This is thoroughly amusing! A message that is a year and a half old gets a vitriolic reply, not for actual comment or opinion, but for a quote from an article!
@ John wrote: I think if you check out BlackBerry-centric websites you will see that the reviews are much more positive.
Well, no shit Red Ryder. That’s why they exist. And Windows sites are much more positive about WP7, I’ll bet.
You deserve what you get.
Crackberry.com has a longer list of misses than hits in it’s review summary of the PlayBook. In fact, they count ‘Flash and the entire web’ as a hit.
They obviously didn’t try Flash on Facebook.