Rim PlayBook to hit UK in Q2 2011
Yanks get $500 tablet in Q1
Waiting for Rim's PlayBook BlackBerry tablet? Don't hold your breath - it's not out over here until April 2011 at the earliest.
So says Gregory Wade, head of Rim's Asia operation, by way of local newssite DigiTimes. Wade said the PlayBook will debut in the US and Rim's native Canada in Q1 2011, with a broader roll-out following in Q2.
Despite the name, the 7in PlayBook will be aimed at corporate users, Wade said, and it'll cost $500 (£311).
Seaparately, Rim released a video comparing the PlayBook's Flash-enabled browser with the Apple iPad's Flash-less one:
COMMENTS
What about the modular cavity?
One interesting feature is the 'modular cavity' which sounds as if field upgrades or function changes will be possible which is a very effective way of keeping it current whereas other competitors would have potentially bring out a new model.
Of course, annual 'amazing, magical' releases are a way one California company apes the automobile companies marketing strategies.
size doesnt matter
so does Steve Jobs think that this one is also dead in the water due to its size too?
Many non-CPU intensive applications
I think the idea is for employees who are only really doing simple IT tasks. Accessing email, web based applications. Inputting figures, producing charts and statistics.
Or form filling, in the health sector there is a lot of form filling and if you can capture electronically then you can validate input before submitting the data and eliminate data entry.
Of course, a 7 inch tablet is inferior for displaying data and for forms.
Anything with "Play" in the name is going to sound like a toy. Playstation, playschool and so on. The fact that they've called it Playbook and it's aimed at business is an awful bit of branding.
But then RIM have a pretty awful name anyway. With Apple you can say you're an Appler, I'm not going to type what you are if you have a RIM device :)
So who is this meant to be for?
The principle reason people use Blackberry phones is as mobile email clients. If they want something larger, then the chances are they have a laptop or PC. So who is the tablet meant to be for again?
Yes but...
The iPad will be a year old by the time the Playbook arrives, and in fact we'll probably have the iPad v2 at the time, so a lot of the comparisons in the video are pointless.
The 'win' for the PB is flash. You have to assume iPad 2 won't have flash, so it will have that edge. Assuming you think flash is an advantage, and that demo doesn't show how good flash is, just that it loaded!
On my Samsung Galaxy Tab flash is nice to have as I can watch the embedded media on the BBC site, but the whole web experience is hampered with pages that have flash content and I don't see the PB being much better.
