The IT Nerd

The long awaited update to the Blackberry Playbook hit the streets today. Here’s what the updates give Playbook users:

• Native email, contacts and calendar functionality.
• RIM’s Android app player is finally on board
• Video chat has been enhanced
• BlackBerry Bridge has been updated
• Social networking such as Facebook and Twitter have been added

You can see the full list of updates here. From Playbook users I’ve spoken to, it’s a welcome update. The question is, is it too little too late? After all, the iPad outsells the Playbook something like 100 to 1 and if you believe the rumors, the iPad 3 is about to ship on March 7th. That will make it even more difficult for RIM to compete.

We’ll see what happens. I suspect it won’t take long to find out which way this goes.

Research In Motion seems to be in a downward spiral at the moment. Earlier this week, Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis walked out on a BBC reporter when the topic of RIM’s issues with countries that want access to the e-mails and BBM messages of Blackberry users in their countries. Click here if you want to see a clip of what happened. The fact that he walked out shows that RIM is clearly feeling the heat. That heat got cranked up in the last couple of days with the release of the Playbook tablet. Even before it was shown to the public, RIM stock tanked by 3% on the Toronto Stock Exchange. When it did show up, the negative reviews started. Uber famous tech writer David Pogue said the tablet is “half baked” and Tim Stevens of Engadet said that it’s “…worrying that things as critical as memory management are still being tweaked at the eleventh hour,”. Many reviews note that features like e-mail, BlackBerry Messenger and contacts, only appear on the PlayBook when a wireless link is established with a BlackBerry. No Blackberry? You don’t get those apps, although they are coming in a future software update. Oh, I should mention that the ability to run Android apps isn’t there either apparently and the battery life is not up to the 10 hour figure that RIM has been touting. All of those make the Playbook a #fail to borrow a quote NDP leader Jack Layton.

Clearly RIM is in trouble. They’re late to the party with the Playbook, and they’re hurting because of their security issues. They know it and they seem to be unable do anything about it. I think what you’re seeing is the beginning of the end of RIM. Expect Android phones and the iPhone to continue to take market share away from RIM. You can also expect RIM to become less relevant.

Too bad for RIM. Time to write the obituary.

This was posted to crackberry.com today and I have to admit I am sort of mystified. According to a Verizon webinar, there will not be e-mail, contacts and calendar apps when the tablet launches. That will come in a future software update. I have no clue if this is accurate or not. But if it is, it’s one huge dis-incentive in terms of my decision to potentially buy one.

Why?

Buying a product and depending on a future software upgrade to bring functionality that should be present at launch is lame. The question is, will it be an epic fail for RIM?

Tune in on April 19th to find out.

With the ship date of the Playbook fast approaching, the news has hit the streets that the tablet will be able to run Android apps and more:

RIM will launch two optional “app players” that provide an application run-time environment for BlackBerry Java® apps and Android v2.3 apps. These new app players will allow users to download BlackBerry Java apps and Android apps from BlackBerry App World and run them on their BlackBerry PlayBook.

You have to wonder why RIM would go this route. Do the lack confidence in their own apps? There’s about 10,000 of them out there right now. While not a huge number when compared to what’s available for Android or Apple products, it’s not small. One has to wonder if this is some sort of last ditch effort to save their tablet from being destroyed by the iPad 2. Or maybe it’s due to the fact that their earnings report didn’t exactly set the world on fire.

We’ll see on April 19th.

So much for April 10th.

RIM announced that their much hyped Playbook tablet will ship on April 19th across Canada and the US at a variety of retail outlets:

The PlayBook will initially come in three flavours. The entry-level model, with 16 gigabytes of memory, is expected to sell for roughly $500 (Canadian). The 32- and 64-gigabyte models will sell for $600 and $700, respectively.

That puts it in the same space as the iPad 2. Which it has to be in if RIM wants to actually stand a chance against Apple. My “best friends at Rogers” didn’t hesitate to e-mail me to point out that there is a demo video kicking around on RedBoard that’s worth looking at if you want to see if RIM has a credible competitor in the tablet market.

RIM has decided that they need a tablet of their own. So, they announced the Playbook tablet. Here’s the specs:

• 7” LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable:
  • Measures 5.1”x7.6”x0.4” (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
  • Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

For those of you who were playing attention, this tablet has Flash. Take that “Steve-O.” Oh “Steve-O” should also notice the HD screen along with HDMI output and Micro USB jack. I guess RIM doesn’t see the need to rape rip off their users every time they need to buy a cable like Apple does. Another thing to note: This tablet will hook up to a BES server. So that instantly gives it street cred in the boardrooms of the world. The tablet will utilize an OS created by the recently acquired QNX called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. It gives RIM full OpenGL and POSIX support alongside web standards such as HTML5.

My take. Apple better pay attention because this is more than a decent first step. This is as close to a game changer as RIM can get without actually changing the game. I say that because it’s not out until next year. That gives Apple time to respond. Let’s see what they respond with.

In the meantime, enjoy the video: