back to article RIM boss: 'Our PlayBook shames the You Know What'

Never has anyone spent so much time talking about Apple without saying the ‘A’ word than RIM CEO Jim Balsillie as he showed off the company's upcoming PlayBook tablet at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Playing to the gallery of operators – a congregation that booed when the iPhone 4 won ‘best handset’ at last night’s GSMA …

COMMENTS

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  1. Philip Stott

    Burning question left unanswered!

    When will Samsung's Bada phones get Bing?

    Sorry.

    1. Brutus
      Pint

      Groan!

      you will be pun-ished for that in the next life :)

      1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: Groan!

        Or by me, in this one.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Getting a bit desperate?

    RIM CEO: "What makes the PlayBook great [] is that it supports real-time multitasking with symmetric multiprocessing"

    If that's all he can come up with, particularly as a key differentiator, it comes across as a bit desperate (not to mention naive). He might as well have said, "it's really cool because it has a touch screen". Yawn...

    I can't say I have an ounce of sympathy for the operators either - if they wanted to be more than simply network providers, the time to act has well and truly gone. I can't remember a time when I was impressed or even tempted by their offerings - slow, expensive, hard to use, and utterly indifferent service. Doesn't sound like the learned much either.

    1. mafoo
      WTF?

      and..

      "he talked about how the PlayBook does things the unmentionablepad doesn’t, and how those things will make money for networks"

      ...by not connecting to their networks directly, instead requiring a tethered/mifi blackberry or other mobile device. Hummmm....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        WTF?

        Re: and#

        I would rather connect via wifi or tethering to my BB than having to pay for another data only sim that can only be used in one device...... or maybe you are so loaded that you don't care about that?

        1. mafoo
          FAIL

          erm...

          Have you seen the terms and conditions about tethering?

          expect to pay an extra £15+ a month for the tethering - if its anything like blackberry's other service charges, it will be a lot more than that.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            WTF?

            Re: erm

            and you got this £15 cost from where exactly? Considering no carriers have said they will charge and neither have RIM....

            1. mafoo

              /sigh do you research

              search for tethering.

              http://business.orange.co.uk/documents/ice/business/orange_for_business_price_guide__pdf__185_kb_.pdf

              1. This post has been deleted by its author

              2. Anonymous Coward
                FAIL

                Re: /sigh do you research

                Can you read? I don't think so....

                'tethering

                The iPhone allows you to connect your handset to your computer and use it as a modem so you can

                access the internet within the UK'.

                Now to me that spells iPhone and not Blackberry - try again when you have something concrete

                1. mafoo
                  Coat

                  /facepalm

                  I was demonstrating that business contract providers charge extra for tethering, but whatever, go back under you bridge and troll someone else. You obviously live in a made up world.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Thumb Down

                    Re: Facepalm

                    No what you are demonstrating is that providers charge for tethering a particular device. End of.

                    Just because the example you have provided shows that iPhone tethering is cahrgeable it does not mean that BB will be.

                    Example to illustrate as you are obviously too stupid to understand.

                    Lets say that the iphone is a BMW and the BB is a Mercedes. - OK get that bit?

                    Lets now say that BMW (i.e Apple) charge for heated seats. - - OK get that bit?

                    Following your logic then Mercedes must also charge for heated seats.

                    Now in reality they don't have to. They may well do but that is not the point. The point is you cannot assume that one will charge just because someone or something else does.

                    Now crawl back into dumbass little hole and try not to damage the human gene pool any further.

                  2. Anonymous Coward
                    Grenade

                    Point proven

                    By the way - not all carriers charge even for iphone tethering - if you are on the One Plan from 3 in the UK its all included.

                    Good night

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Heaven's above!

    The man, Balsillie that is, appears to be a Fifer!

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Balsillie+Avenue,+United+Kingdom&aq=4&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.25371,83.144531&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Balsillie+Ave,+Fife+KY6+3,+United+Kingdom&ll=56.205988,-3.208866&spn=0.030506,0.081196&t=h&z=14&iwloc=A

  4. McBeese

    Talk is cheap.

    I have serious doubts about battery life with RIM's PlayBook and I question the viability of a QNX ecosystem. But you know what? It's not worth thinking about because THERE IS NO PLAYBOOK. Until RIM actually releases something, Apple's iPad wins in every category because you can't beat SOMETHING with NOTHING.

    RIM – the time for talking is long past! Put up, or SHUT UP!

    1. Wpgwill

      title

      They told everyone about it way to soon, whats the point of hyping a device for months on end when you cant actually purchase it? And when they don't even have a firm release date that I know of.

      They'll end up being 3rd to market as a slew of Android tablets (in addition to the ones already out) will be available soon.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    The funny thing is ...

    ... the Apple always seems to keep things closed, covered by agreements, no responses to rumours and when it appears dah-de-dah.

    The wannabees don't seem to have grasped that or have but choose to ignore it?

    And while there will be lots of press releases with little immediate substance or manifestation the Apple keeps iPadX under wraps.

    (No main theme here other than an observation of humans at work)

    1. fandom
      Jobs Horns

      Yes, but...

      Apple can afford to do that as the whole of the media takes care of building hype for them, for free. Other companies need to do the job themselves.

      Anyway, remember the iPhone, Apple did pre announce it months in advance, they don't need to do it any more.

  6. Muckminded

    Whatever gets things flowing

    Whenever I get severely "disintermediated", I eat more fiber. Tech companies eat more crow.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Huh?

    "What is open is the choice of dev systems: you can use HTML5, Dreamweaver, JavaScript, and CSS."

    Uh, what exactly do you think Dreamweaver USES? Oh ya, that's right, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not to mention...

      that this isn't even a differentiator anyway. Any iOS, Android or WebOS device can be coded for using exactly the same "HTML5" toolkit. It isn't unique in any way, shape or form.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'What makes the PlayBook great'

    'is that it supports real-time multitasking with symmetric multiprocessing.'

    The sound you hear is Cupertino laughing. If this is RIM's strategy they are doomed to irrelevance. Selling products is about telling people how great life is when you own it - what you can do - not how it is done. Apple is where it is today by making the technology almost entirely invisible to the user.

    And let's not think for one minute that RIM have a tablet - they've demoed a tablet, but that's a long way from getting millions of them out into the marketplace. They're late to a game whose schedule is being dictated by Apple and Google, each of which can bury RIM in money. If they delay launching the tablet it much longer RIM will forgotten in the hype for iPad 2 and the first practical Android. Try to wait out that media cycle and their tablet will be old hat before it even hits the market.

  9. jayp
    FAIL

    as others have mentioned...

    talk is cheap - think this post says it all in it's title...

    http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/02/16/rim-needs-to-shut-up-and-ship/

    the fail icon's for you RIM

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Title should be:

    "Our Playbook shames absolutely nothing as you can't buy the fucking thing"

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Amazing isn't it?

    How all the Apple fanbois appear again attacking a tablet which hasn't even launched. Far from Apple laughing, this is surely because they are worried about some competition for the S**tePad and as such have bought out the clone army of fanbois to make some noise......

  12. Slim
    Alert

    Can't we all just get along?

    Well it's very clear where most of you lot all stand with your tastes in hardware/software vendors. I am the first to admit that I am a fairly dedicated Blackberry user and it’s a huge chunk of my job. I DO however appreciate Apples hardware and some of its devices. I do think some people have overlooked a few things with the Playbook though and are letting rivalries get in the way.

    I think RIM and HP have made a strong decision with the OS of their tablets. Instead of trying to add functionality to a phone OS, they've started from scratch to make a OS just for tablets and then further down the line, disable whets not needed to move it onto a phone. Yes OS6 on the playbook meant it would have been out by now but how buggy would it have really been. Not that the iOS is that bad but at times it does feel rushed. Although no where near as bad as W7P that feels very rushed and lacking at times.

    Yes, it has taken them a very long time to go from initial announcement to actually selling them, as long as the time has been taken to iron out any issues with the OS, I for one would not mind waiting a few months more to have a near faultless device as possible. I mean you wouldn’t be happy if you brought a car if the engine kept on cutting out every time you tried to take a left hand turn, at 20mph on a Tuesday would you? Although I do agree that if it's not out by the end of April, 9 months from announcement to sale is more then pushing their luck.

    RIM say that it's big feature is "it supports real-time multitasking with symmetric multiprocessing," however have you guys even looked at the hands on reviews and videos of how the play book handles multitasking of two HD videos being shown on the same screen at once with comparative ease? I’ve read from a hardened apple fan who was taken aback from RIM's offering. Though that's just it's party trick to be fair, the fact that companies that want a highly secure mobile device can get a Playbook and connect it into an existing BES server. There is a reason why Apple don’t get threatened with being banned in a country because their devices are too secure for the local governments own liking.

    Honestly though, I don’t think the Playbook will be an "iPad killer" much in the same way no blackberry will ever be an "iPhone killer". They are chalk and cheese, the playbook will take a good portion out of the tablet market this year but they will be mostly taking it from a part of the market that’s not accessible for the iPad, The medium/large scale businesses and government departments. Just like the iPad will strive ahead in the personal and small business markets.

  13. GrandpaChris
    Grenade

    Business is Business

    Different folks will get different devices from many different businesses. The phone/interenet device can be sliced and diced in many flavours or flavors suitable to markets that meet selected needs.

    In a few years I will have many devices, sizes, uses giving me multiple services. But at some point the real cost of 'throw-away-devices' will bite us all.http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/grenade_32.png

  14. Grubby

    There's still...

    No reason to own a tablet. There wasn't a few years ago when companies first tried and there isn't now, evvvven if it is covered in shiny apple badges and chrome.

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