It sure must suck to be a Non-Apple tablet. RIM's PlayBook is out and apparently had not been able to generate even a fraction of the
buzz which an iPad creates. The tablet was greeted by almost empty stores in Canada and the US.
After witnessing the dismal sales numbers of Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom, we have definitely downsized our expectations, but the sheer carelessness of the major tech companies simply leaves us bewildered and flabbergasted. We yet have to forget the gaffes committed by Motorola, when it decided to launch the flagship tablet sans its USP 4G connectivity and Flash support. And now we have Research in Motion, which decided to cripple its already-not-so-awesome tablet with serious co-dependency issues.
It's really a sad time for consumers, when the most talked about feature of a tablet is the non-existence of a dedicated email client. PlayBook cannot access mail app until or unless you tether it to a BlackBerry phone. The same principle goes for accessing contacts and calendars. Of course, RIM tried to turn this vice into a virtue by claiming that this has been done to ensure the security of emails. But we beg to differ. Thanks to this feature, RIM has already slashed its potential market.
And just when we thought, things could not get any worse, we got the news that AT&T has already blocked such tethering. AT&T, which is the second biggest telecom carrier in the US, said that it is in the process of testing its BlackBerry Bridge function and until it completes all its formalities, the users will not be able to mirror their BlackBerry phone on to the bigger screen. Dear RIM, next time when you plan to launch some new product, please do your homework thoroughly.
However, RIM is still keeping its chin up. Despite poor response from retail consumer segment, the company is still harboring the hopes of getting approval from its corporate clients. PlayBook is powered by QNX operating system. We have not got to hear much about the performance of the platform, probably because analysts are still grappling with glaring stupid mistakes committed by RIM. Let's just hope that once the dust settles down, the OS receives good reviews. After all, RIM has already lost ground in smartphone segment and now it desperately needs a big success to remain afloat.