RIM’s PlayBook tablet duly hit the shelves on Tuesday, to mixed response ‘ and, in the US at least, two deep flaws. One was already known about, the lack of RIM’s signature application, integrated email (though that will come later). The other was AT&T’s decision to block the app that allows BlackBerry users to pair their handsets with the PlayBook. The operator said the decision was because the feature has not yet been tested properly on its network, but suspicious minds pointed to carrier fears of BlackBerry users bypassing tethering charges. This will be a blow to the PlayBook though, since RIM has been pushing its role as a BlackBerry companion heavily in the run-up to shipment.
Indeed, as on-sale day approached, RIM executives became increasingly focused on the strengths of the installed BlackBerry base, whereas at last year’s launch they had been painting all kinds of new target users for the tablet. Behind the hype, though, the PlayBook really is a companion device for the loyal RIM base ‘ which is a perfectly sound strategy, especially for a first generation product, except that the tablet cannot currently behave as a companion, and also has an entirely different operating system to the BlackBerry. And, partly because of RIM’s own over-enthusiastic statements, the product will be judged not as an incremental gadget for the BlackBerry segment, but as a maintstream ‘iPad killer’, a role in which it will almost certainly fail.
If talk of killing iPad dragons has created over-inflated expectations for the PlayBook, the initial reaction to its appearance largely followed traditional lines. Reviewers and analysts focused on enterprise systems were generally positive and several large corporations stood up to say they would be using the product. But there were no long lines or Apple-style razzmatazz for the new device, and consumer focused commentators found it wanting in several respects when held up against the inevitable iPad benchmark.
One of the problems for PlayBook, in the run-up to shipment, has been confusion in its positioning. When it was first unveiled RIM was sticking firmly to its enterprise credentials, but since then has been talking up consumer video markets. The device risks falling between many stools ‘ a BlackBerry companion with a new operating system; a tablet with no built-in email from a firm famous chiefly for email; a product that has taken too long to come to market, but is still accused of being rushed and half-baked.
Actual sales will be the proof, but so far challengers to the iPad have made limited impact on a sector in which optimism is waning somewhat already and RIM needs to rekindle excitement around its product, and the category as a whole. Balsillie was lending his weight to this effort in an interview with Bloomberg News, in which he dismissed many criticisms of the PlayBook as ‘unfair’. He reacted in particular to accusations that the tablet was an unfinished device, saying the base of 60m BlackBerry phone users could use the PlayBook to read email. ‘A lot of the people that want this want a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry.’ He added: ‘I like our chances for a lot of share. We’re very excited about where we are.’
He particularly singled out the ‘bridging app’ for PlayBook, which is why the action by AT&T, the US exclusive launch carrier, is so serious. Last week, Balsillie said the bridging app was the tablet’s big differentiator over iPad or Android rivals ‘ but also pointed to why AT&T may balk at it. The app allows BlackBerry users to get 3G data access on a tablet without paying an additional fee, but AT&T charges $20 for tethering, in addition to its $25 smartphone data plan. “Why would I pay an additional $30 a month to tether when I can use my BlackBerry with the PlayBook?” Balsillie asked. The bridge app is also vital to enterprise users, since it allows them to get their BlackBerry emails, messages and contacts when the products are connected, but without leaving the sensitive content on the tablet when they are separated. “We are working with RIM to offer the ‘bridge’ app to AT&T customers,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel insisted.
The vendor will have to hope it is true to its word, and meanwhile is promising the email feature, and a 3G version, ‘very soon’. The BlackBerry base will be vital, since for consumers, Apple and Android have far more applications and iPad has a strong brand and market share lead. The risk for RIM is that the new tablet OS, based on RIM’s purchase of QNX, will not be sufficiently unified with the BlackBerry platform. This could replicate the problems faced by Palm when it left its enthusiastic Palm OS user base behind to adopt the more modern, but apps-light, webOS. RIM has confused matters further by compensating for the low base of QNX programs by supporting Android and Java runtimes.
Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis believes the quality of RIM’s technology, its enterprise and security features, and the ‘ultra-portability’ of its 7-inch form factor, will win through. Indeed, RIM has a quirkier justification than most for the small-screen format ‘ which has been roundly dismissed by Apple’s Steve Job. Todd Wood, VP of industrial design, said in a recent Bloomberg interview that it was inspired by the size of the famous Moleskine leather notebooks, as used by Ernest Hemingway (and now available as covers for tablets and ereaders). However, the appeal of 7-inches to creative types has not set the world on fire for the first device in this size, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which sold 2 million units in the last seven weeks of 2010.
The PlayBook is Wi-Fi only at this stage and starts at $499, the same price as the least expensive iPad 2, and goes up to $699, well below the top end iPad 2, at $829 (but that has 3G).
One of the many forecasts for the PlayBook comes from Alkesh Shah of Evercore Partners, who thinks RIM will sell about 250,000 units between next week and the end of May (the end of the vendor’s fiscal quarter), and 5.4 million for the full fiscal year. It will build up 10% of the tablet market by 2015, says another analyst firm, Gartner, which would be about 29m units.
The first teardown of the product has come from UBM TechInsights, which says Texas Instruments won four sockets in the Playbook ‘ for the OMAP 4430 apps processor, a four-in-one chip for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS/FM connectivity, plus power management and converter chips. This is the first product to use the WiLink 7.0 combo connectivity chip from TI, which one analyst called a ‘daring decision’.