RIM Launches BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

[Maura]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaez_4m9mQ]YouTube - BlackBerry PlayBook - Preview[/ame]​

ZDNet reports that Research In Motion has today unveiled its new BlackBerry tablet at the BlackBerry Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Although the tablet had been closely linked to the name "BlackPad", RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis revealed that the new tablet would be called the BlackBerry PlayBook. Powered by the new BlackBerry Tablet OS, the tablet has a 7-inch LCD touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and a high-res widescreen display with support for 1080p with HDMI and USB ports. Particular note is made of the fact that it will have support for Adobe's Flash player!

The PlayBook measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" and weighs approximately 0.9lb.
It will be Wi-Fi only to begin with, paired with BlackBerry smartphones, but RIM says that it plans to offer 3G and 4G versions in future.

As ZDNet points out, a possibly telling omission from the official spec sheet is battery life, and no mention of price as yet either. Two crucial aspects of how well the PlayBook will fare against the iPad.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to go on sale in early 2011 in the US, and then roll out to other markets throughout the year.

Source: ZDNet

 

[Demandarin]

1GB of RAM....my IPAD is sooo jealous. Lol. Very impressive video, very impressive specs. Plus its going to be more business driven although IPAD catching more steam in that area also. Looks good. Even better, spec wise thn the new Galaxy tablet comin. The war has definitely begun. Apple better get on their P's and Q's.

 

[Gringop20]

Shoot! I just got my iPad! I want a bb tablet too! Haha..

 

[IpadOne]

1GB of RAM....my IPAD is sooo jealous. Lol. Very impressive video, very impressive specs. Plus its going to be more business driven although IPAD catching more steam in that area also. Looks good. Even better, spec wise thn the new Galaxy tablet comin. The war has definitely begun. Apple better get on their P's and Q's.

this is just one wana be iPad killer … but no luck … why they don’t have one word about the life battery or the price and the memory capacity … at the time this one will come the iPad 2 already out … so just imagine who will win the battle

 

[Hasty]

Certainly the video looked better than the android ones I've seen.
Nice clean interface, but I still prefer the larger screen size.

Do hope the iPad2 arrives early though.

 

[ArthurIhde]

i love ipad better!

 

[yneville]

How fast does the bb playbook boot?

The major selling feature that sold me on the iPad? Instant on. Like a simple lightbulb. Turn the switch and it is on. So if the bb playbook takes time to turn on, the it is too slow.


:ipad-front:

 

[IGonz]

1GB of RAM....my IPAD is sooo jealous. Lol. Very impressive video, very impressive specs. Plus its going to be more business driven although IPAD catching more steam in that area also. Looks good. Even better, spec wise thn the new Galaxy tablet comin. The war has definitely begun. Apple better get on their P's and Q's.

this is just one wana be iPad killer … but no luck … why they don’t have one word about the life battery or the price and the memory capacity … at the time this one will come the iPad 2 already out … so just imagine who will win the battle

Every description or specs. I read about these new tablets say nothing about the battery.
Never seen anything like this before with any portable device.
Battery life is usually the first thing I look for.
These tablet makers seem to proud of their specs but apparently something must be wrong here.

I am spoiled with my iPad and expect nothing less than 10hrs. with the new tablet devices.

 

[sandra]

I think PlayBook might be quite a worthy device, good both for work and for pleasure, but I don't understand why they have opted for such a name. Actually, BlackBerry devices have always been intended mostly for the corporate market, so this name seems quite odd.

 

[anthonyl]

as much as I love RIM, the iPad ecosystem just seems to have more of everything

 

[Finnedog]

I think PlayBook might be quite a worthy device, good both for work and for pleasure, but I don't understand why they have opted for such a name. Actually, BlackBerry devices have always been intended mostly for the corporate market, so this name seems quite odd.

I think so also, I think Blackpad would have fit right into the Blackberry fold and given it instant name recognition.

 

[CJL]

The preview looks great. I've had many good experiences with BB.

 

[thewebabout]

I just analyzed the Web with my opinion analyzer about BlackBerry Playbook
See here
http://thewebabout.com/blackberryplaybookOpinions.html
Veeery positive acceptance for now...of course no hands on experience, so it is easy to be positive

 

[Mikeymikez]

And are people gonna write a lot of Apps for yet another OS? Especially when they are busy working on the Android version, etc.? And would those Apps pretty much run on all BBs, like most iPhone apps run on iPad?

Gonna be a slew of Tablets coming out soon. I would guess that Steve already has anticipated this...

 

[petermillard]

I think this was less of a product launch and more a statement of intent - just RIM saying "please don't buy an iPad for Christmas - we'll have something for you really soon in 2011..."

Overall though, I'd say it's a pretty good move from RIM - it's a 7-incher so doesn't compare readily with iPad, it runs its own OS, so can't easily be compared to all those Android tablets that are going to slay the iPad, lol, it tethers to your 'Berry for connection when out and about so stops folks whining about needing an extra data plan, or presumably could be used as a stand-alone WiFi device. I too find the name odd - it was explained to me on another forum as a 'sporting metaphor' but I'm pretty sure that's overwhelmingly US interpretation that won't sit well in ROW.

The specs look good - though as always the two critical ones (battery life and price) appear to be missing. But the biggest concern with it is that it may not actually exist:-

Singularity Hacker: The BlackBerry PlayBook Doesn't Exist

The videos don't show an actual product, and no actual product was available hands-on to attendees at the 'launch'. There were 'products' behind plexiglass that ran a sequence of screens and videos, but these could just have been dumb monitors (albeit in a smart suit) playing a demo.

I have no doubt that RIM are serious about putting this into production, but all we've seen so far is a nicely turned-out mock-up and some nifty CGI.

Cheers, Pete.