Even RIM doesn’t want their Playbook tablet

“It is the herpes of tablets — once you have it, you can’t get rid of it.”One of the perks of being a tech journalist are all the new toys we get to try out — companies generally send us products for a week or two, and after trying them out they’re sent back to the company (it keeps us honest),” Matt Stuart reports for CNNMoney.

“Except for this PlayBook. It was given to us for Julianne to review, and every time we contact RIM asking where to send it back to we don’t get a response,” Stuart reports. “I’ve been keeping it in a drawer at my desk, pulling it out only when sub-standard products are released and I can say: ‘But at least it’s not as bad as the PlayBook!'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Yet another bad review for DCW‘s PlayBook; this time blessedly short and sweet.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Wedbush cuts RIM on dim outlooks for PlayBook tablets, BlackBerry phones – May 25, 2011
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook suffers new round of battery woes – May 19, 2011
RIM recalls PlayBook tablets – May 16, 2011
Needham downgrades RIM, chops forecast; blames ‘clueless’ half-CEOs – May 5, 2011
Research In Motion warns of weak BlackBerry sales; shares plunge – April 29, 2011
Anatomy of failure: Mobile flops from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia can’t compete with Apple’s iPhone, iPad – April 23, 2011
InfoWorld reviews RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: A useless, unfathomable train wreck 2011 – April 21, 2011
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

38 Comments

      1. The ads they have been showing in the US during the Stanley Cup hockey broadcasts have been purely delusional. They basically boil down to, “We have Flash, ain’t that great!”

        1. I love that commercial! They use Queen’s “Flash Gordon” theme as the background music. Whenever they get to the “AH-AAAA” part it reminds me that just the word “Flash” should make everyone run away screaming. They’re right. Run away screaming, from both Flash and the PlayBook.

        2. What they always do is show fake PlayBooks, because the screen images are simulated. The actor touches the screen, but if you look carefully, he’s not actually touching what he should be touching. It’s all just CGI’d. How can they pretend they are showing us Flash or the whole web, when they don’t show us any Flash or the web at all?

  1. “It is the herpes of tablets….” That line alone makes this article worth it. So RIM has the Playbook and the Herpes Tablet, now that’s diverse. Oh and if your significant other surprises you with a new Herpes Tab…….you two should probably sit down and have a little talk. I’m just sayin’…..

    1. Yup, sure did. It was especially ironic when you look at the original video for that song.
      Now they are hyping the fact that the PlayBook can display Flash content, in an ad using the theme song from the cheesy 1980s Flash Gordon movie.
      Hilarious!

  2. Ouch! Ouch! RIM has really fallen behind terribly. In my government agency, though they invested heavily in a Blackberry Enterprise Servers years ago, they are overtly steering people away from RIM devices to iOS devices.

  3. Their Flash commercial talks about how their PlayBook can do Flash, “unlike another tablet we could mention”, which gives those lucky PlayBook users “the whole internet, not just part of it”.

    And a current Android dumbphone commercial brags about it’s “dual core processor”.

    Something only Apple seems to understand is that the widest target audience for these devices don’t give a flying crap about “dual core” this or that, nor would 1 in 10 be able to tell you anything about Flash.

  4. Playbook is superior. Your statements make it clear. You are afraid – and so you feebly mock the competition. One year from now you will pathetically defend the iPads waning marketshare…

    1. Playbook could be better if you let us at Dell build it. We are on a winning… STREAK when it comes to tablet computers.

      Streak, get it? PC humor is awesome. Buy a Dell.

  5. I’m curious–do RIM employees use the Playbook? When I read the headline I was struck with the thought of RIM employees refusing to use their own product.

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