Oh dear. RIM’s iPad competitor, the PlayBook, gets a solid panning from the New York Times’ David Pogue.
The main problem is the lack of apps. Not even native apps. It doesn’t even have built-in email! The hardware is pretty limited too — no 3G or GPS.
The PlayBook, then, is convenient, fast and coherently designed. But in its current half-baked form, it seems almost silly to try to assess it, let alone buy it.
Remember, the primary competition is an iPad — the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps. In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, no Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?
On the bright side, it does have a couple of spectacular features: its secure, can be synced wirelessly, and can power an external screen independently (the iPad only does mirroring). RIM promises updates to the hardware and software throughout the year, but by then, Apple will be finishing the iPad 3. It looks like a bomb.
New York Times: A BlackBerry Tablet, but Where Are the Apps?
UPDATE: WSJ’s Walt Mossberg slams it too: “I recommend waiting on the PlayBook until more independently usable versions with the promised additions are available.”
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
27 responses to “Pogue Pans the PlayBook”
This review is going to have the Rim CEO crying again. I hope the NYT mailed him some tissues.
This review is going to have the Rim CEO crying again. I hope the NYT mailed him some tissues.
So what does it have beside the OS?
I think he may turn to violence at this point. 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. He’s got a ways to go yet.
As expected, after months of delay with one bogus claim after another as excuses, the two co-tards finally dropped a half-baked pos, just like the Torch before it.
And is it just me or is the co-CEO losing it. I mean I seen him up on stage he isnt a marketing person. He is very defensive. He cannot answer questions correctly. He is like a politician except he is trying to sell a product. Supposedly, he is a engineering mastermind. So keep him where he excels. Him not able to coherently answer questions makes me question RIM’s direction and whether they have a plan to compete. Put Jim to do the marketing.
There’s no built in email client? WHAT?!?!
iPad3 is not a 2011 product … why do you continue to hype the rumor. The changes will be software. The hardware is more than adequate. You won’t see Retina in iPad either. When Apple is building iPad2 at the rate of 4 million per month … and the demand is so high the distribution points can’t keep them in stock … why would Apple need iPad3? Business wise, it isn’t necessary. Now if you talked about the available of the Thunderbolt 30 pin adapter, then you would have something to crow about. Hi speed wireless sync to Apple TV would make sense.
I agree that all this talk about the iPad 3 coming out this year is ridiculous. The iPad 3 speculation is all based on one guy’s opinion that Apple wants to get the iPad release cycle in line the iPod and the holiday buying season. I can agree that would be a good thing, but it is pure speculation to say they would shorten development time to do that. At the rate the iPad 2 is selling, they’ll will still be hot items in seven months, and the lack of competition isn’t forcing Apple to hurry up.
Hardly a bomb – the product gets a lot right and some wrong, just like the first iPhone. there will be solid sales of the Playbook and the future of QNX-powered devices is bright.
The playbook does actually have a functioning GPS Get your facts right!!!
The playbook does actually have a functioning GPS Get your facts right!!!
Releasing a new device/platform this Easter season without including Angry Birds is such a big loss.
What are the Playbookers going to do when everyone around them are playing the upcoming Angry Birds Seasons Easter Update on their iPads?
BTW, there’s been a video uploaded on YouTube showing the gameplay of the upcoming Easter update. I think you should check ’em out: http://bit.ly/fJHpnV
It’s awesome!
And, I do believe that this Easter season is going to be owned by Rovio and Apple, not BlackBerry.
Interesting and informative post
The difference being that when the iPhone launched, there was nothing quite like it. The Playbook launches with the iPad 2 already in the market and with all those missing features already in place.