“Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook is so bad that Verizon Wireless may not bother carrying it — a spokesperson said so the day after the PlayBook debuted to customers. AT&T won’t let BlackBerry users download the essential app (BlackBerry Bridge) that brings email and communications apps to the PlayBook. Carriers are arms dealers, selling weapons to anyone for a price, but even they are drawing the line at the PlayBook,: Galen Gruman reports for InfoWorld. “That’s a huge fall given that the PlayBook’s creator, RIM, is the successful patriarch of the mobile market — inventing the smartphone category, in fact. And RIM is not alone.”
“Like RIM, after lots and lots of promises leveraging its Windows savvy and market strength, Microsoft produced its own disastrous mobile platform, Windows Phone 7,” Gruman reports. “The list goes on. Nokia had to kill its signature Symbian OS after a new CEO forced it to admit that the OS was at end of life after several years of self-denial, and the company’s efforts to create a successor had all failed. It then jumped from the frying pan into the fire by adopting Windows Phone 7 and delayed new products until 2012. Then there is the parade of successful, largely Asian PC and display makers (original equipment makers, or OEMs) — such as Acer, Lenovo, and ViewSonic — who promise and even sometimes ship sloppy, ill-conceived devices in hopes of getting into a growing market. How enticing!”
Gruman wonders, “Why are such established technology powerhouses failing so spectacularly in mobile? How can they not see the self-destruction in their approaches? …There are several reasons, and one of them is not Apple. Sure, Apple worked its design magic on first the smartphone and then the tablet, bringing to market the same zeal, elegance, consistency, and ecosystem advantages that have made the Mac the only PC with a growing market share. But Apple had done that with the original Mac, yet was still beaten by others. The fact that Apple’s mobile products are truly the best doesn’t explain why the competitors’ products are generally so bad.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Apple overtakes Nokia as world’s largest vendor of mobile handsets by revenue – April 21, 2011
InfoWorld reviews RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: A useless, unfathomable train wreck – April 21, 2011
RIM’s half-CEOs whine: It’s not ‘fair’ that our ‘superior’ tablet is getting bad reviews – April 15, 2011
Analyst cuts forecasts for Motorola on disappointing Xoom, Atrix sales – April 5, 2011
Apple makes roadkill of deer-in-the-headlights CEOs – April 1, 2011