Blackberry Playbook

RIM's official response (stripped from http://crackberry.com)

 

Why would they want to fix it? It might make the product more attractive to some people, especially at fire sale prices.

 

RIM's image is about security.

And RIM should have their own android solution of a sort in short order, so it would make sense to attempt to maintain money flowing through their appstore rather than amazon or someone elses.

However it remains to be seen if this jailbreak can do anything useful.

 

It seems like they're about to drop the product. I know there is a new OS update coming but no word on newer hardware.

Hard to maintain a Playbook platform when other tablets are turning out new hardware every few months.

 

They've said they're committed to the playbook and I find it hard to believe they'd bother with OS2 if they weren't. And who has been upgrading their tablets more than once a year?

Their focus is probably all on colt (QNX on a smartphone) right now, which will likely be using similar internals, so that's another reason they might be watching the security issue.

 

Well Asus is coming out with two Transformers within one year, maybe within the same calendar year.

Of course Samsung is turning out a new tablet every other week it seems.

RIMM took a big charge and said they're still committed. But if the $485 million charge is for unsold inventory, that might explain why they're not moving to newer hardware.

They may have to put out new software just to move the existing inventory or exhaust all the components. Sounds like they committed to a much higher volume than they were able to sell through.

 

The hack has been patched with a new OS release.

 

Haven't tried it, but jailbreaking Playbook and installing Android market app.

 

OS 2.0 has been released.

 

OS 2.0 must have some improvements under the hood, because flash based apps and websites with embedded flash content/video are much more responsive.

Overall, the new OS doesn't seem like a huge change, but the performance improvement that I'm noticing is welcome. Haven't looked at any Android apps yet. The new keyboard is very nice. Don't care about native email, calendar, so I haven't looked at it.

 

Have they said they plan to continue to develop OS features for the Playbook?

Apparently they still have some inventory to get rid of, so prices are down but by now, the design is a year old and a couple of months from now, it will be that much more uncompetitive.

 

Yes they've mentioned bbm support for a future release and there are rumors of 3G ones coming. As for specs being old, the kindle fire is the same specs.

 

Well, Nook just cut its price and supposedly Asus will have a 7-inch tablet with Tegra 3, presumably quad core, in the spring for $250.

And while it's not a direct competitor to iPad, iPad 3 will suck a lot of the attention in the tablet space for most of this year.

Without apps, how would they market this thing? Initially, it was Flash, which separated it from iPad. But Flash on mobile is now dead or will be. Playbook was suppose to make inroads with the corporate accounts where Blackberry was big but it hasn't done that has it? Meanwhile there are rumors of Office for iPad and of course Windows 8 tablets will aim for corporations as well.

Surprised that they'd bring another hardware SKU, or maybe they would just rework some existing inventory or components they've already sourced to build a 3G SKU. But if hardware development stops there, then they're admitting the platform is pretty much done.

 

Do you really expect hardware to continue a yearly release cycle? As for apps 2.0 comes with the android player. You can side load most android apps if you're technically inclined.

 

I don't see RIM abandoning tablets, and at some point a hardware refresh will be necessary. When the current Playbook will be cut off from OS improvements, I don't know. I imagine, like the iPhone, they won't cut off users with older hardware immediately when new hardware is launched. App catalog is definitely the weak point.

 

Well everyone else is doing at least a yearly refresh. Besides Apple, you figure Amazon will do at least an annual release. Then Android players like Samsung and Asus are releasing several times a year.

Why wouldn't they, the SOCs are developing so fast, they're going to come out with the latest.

I can only guess that they sourced so many of the components which make up the current product, including probably the SOC, that they won't scrap any of it to put in newer SOCs, cameras, etc.

Hardware refresh is one way to stimulate sales. Even Apple wouldn't be able to get away with selling iPad 2 level hardware much longer.

As for side-loading, I would think RIMM would want to appeal to a broader audience than those who'd bother to side load.

 

Obviously they want devs to go through the conversion process and post their android apps to app world. I imagine many will because it's simple and opens a new market.