blackberry playbook 2.0

RIM’s Blackberry Playbook 2.0 released today, gets the shaft

I love to speculate. Which means I’m often wrong, too. At least that’s what seems to stick. Remember how enthusiastic I was about the new Playbook OS? Seems like I was wrong about the impact the changes would have. For more information about what went into the new version, you can still read the piece, this is just a recap of what others think 2.0 did to the Playbook. It ain’t pretty.

Senior CNET writer Roger Cheng asks the question,

With so many new tablets either on the market or a few months away from being introduced, is there any reason to buy the PlayBook?

And indeed he is right in asking this particular question. With iPad 3 at the gates, Amazon’s tablet happily selling for $200, Android powerhouses like the Asus TF201 and the upcoming quad-core TF300T getting cheaper, is there a market segment for RIM to take?

According to him, the Playbook needs to deal with serious problems,

the changes all represent minor improvements to a tablet that needed to take massive steps forward

That’s one thumb down.

ZDNet’s editor in chief Larry Dignan voices his concerns regarding whether the Playbook will hold up against furious competition,

It’s [Playbook 2.0] probably a bit late in the game even if RIM keeps prices low.

Amazon sells its own tablet for $199, which offers not only an e-mail client, but a direct hotline to the Amazon ecosystem, something Research in Motion can’t address at the moment.

Techcrunch’s reporter Ingrid Lunden seems rather upbeat in her article covering the OS version bump. While the piece is generally optimistic, she does hit a nail into the coffin,

what RIM has done is effectively bring the PlayBook up to speed with what other device makers have already been doing on other platforms like Android

Steve Kovach from Business Insider, on the other hand, doesn’t stop short of smacking the Playbook right where it hurts.

From the article linked above “And the PlayBook is still missing RIM’s most popular product, BBM.” With that big a hole gaping on its armor, RIM is still vulnerable to sharp words. Understandably so.

I believe RIM is capable of delivering a product that doesn’t require the customer to be a Blackberry Phone owner, too. Considering all the bad PR the company got today, there are further steps to take to bring its product in line with direct competition.

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