The Blackberry Playbook: Using Sprint to launch - a mistake?

[captainballs]

The Blackberry Playbook will be an excellent device in a lot of ways, but selecting Sprint as the data provider might be just a tad stupid, and knowing that they were forced to use Sprint instead of a stronger network worries me about the performance we're going to see lost on these devices.

Speaking from personal experience, being a former Blackberry owner on Sprint's very economical network (70 bucks a month), I saw a lot of lag, a lot of coverage lapses, and that translated to a fairly mediocre experience. Why in the world would I want to see these problems repeated on a high resolution device that costs a lot more than a phone, and runs on a dual-core processor?

I wouldn't. Sprint doesn't have the network infrastructure and bandwidth to carry this baby home, which is going to become very apparent upon launch. It's going to be like putting a speed governor inside a Porsche engine, which will just be frustrating. Making it a CDMA Device will also ensure that it can't be hacked to work with a real high speed network.

What does this mean for the market proliferation of the Playbook, and of course RIMM's stock price?

 

[Pander Bear]

I've used sprint 4G and 3G both on wireless USB dongles and on handsets (HTC evo) I've never had any complaints. Blackberry probably went with sprint because they like the kind of sales the get from that network (almost every blackberry owner I know has a sprint business account paid for by their employer).

Now, whether this was a good move for RIMM, IDK. This device has very limited appeal, IMO. People who want a fun tablet would rather have an apple product, or an android device, and people who love their blackberries AND who need a tablet are probably a pretty slim demographic. My prediction is that the playbook will die a swift and unnoticed death, but not because of the carrier-- it will be because they're trying to break into the tablet market with an overpriced offering with no benefit of an app market.

 

[captainballs]

I have a different view of tablets: They will die a death, to be sure, and probably be looked back on like a nostalgic joke. However, my view differs from yours in that I believe the tablets are just a step in evolution. They wouldn't exist if they weren't part of a quest for a superior, perfect portable product. Generally, I follow the Kubrick's Space Odyssey technology predictions, which quietly and subtle predicted a slightly larger tablet than the iPad that people carry with them wherever they go, and it almost looks the same too with the black border.

When I was shopping for an iPad this Christmas for the lady of the house, the first thing I was looking at were stand devices that effectively made the iPad look like a laptop with a real keyboard. These clamshells cost about $160 extra bucks, but they are the unsung game changers imo. I believe the future will yield an iPad or Playbook that comes with a kickstand and one of those rubber keyboards that folds up really small and fits into the body of the tablet itself when not in use. Give me that device, and you will see the end of today's tablet imo. Especially if the rubber keyboard is wireless and can really be tucked away into the thin tablet without a problem.

 

[Pander Bear]

this is in the alternate future you live in where everybody thinks touchpads suck the way you do

 

[captainballs]

Ha ha, you just won't let me live that one down, will you? :D

I still stand behind my opinion that when things stop being trendy and show-offish, we will see the return of a physical keyboard. We will see demand for it. I recently got my hands on an HTC Incredible for a few days, another great Android device with an onscreen keyboard. I still can't understand how an industry built on copying Apple still can't copy the superior keyboard (with no vibration effects - useless, imo) that Apple puts in their devices. I have almost zero typos with my Touch, but I couldn't type a paragraph on the HTC incredible without getting frustrated, and it is the best onscreen keyboard I have used besides the iPhone's/Ipod Touch 4g.

Manufacturers are clearly pumping a lot of money into 5-8 megapixel cameras and hot-spot capabilities, but what about, you know, using the device? If the tablets want to kill, just add the archaic, uncool kickstand and neat, wireless rubber keyboard. Maybe then, the real base client - the business person - will dedicate him or herself to holding onto one of these tablets around the office to take meeting minutes as well as using it as just a plain tablet when relaxing at home. I enjoy the iPad touch keyboard - Apple's touch keyboards kill! but from a practical, holding the tablet or putting it flat perspective, there needs to be input that leaves the screen real estate open beyond a few lines or tablets will lose their potential core - that is, the people who are buying them as tools and not throwing them away because Sally in science class has this month's new cool tablet.

The iPod Touch 4g is the perfect device imo, but if it was an iPad I would hook it up with one of those badass cases that is also a keyboard. It would make it more effective as a business tool, man.

 

[captainballs]

http://www.amazon.com/Glowtype-Virtually-Indestructible-Keyboard-Illuminated/dp/B0009B0H08/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b

For illustrative purposes, this is what I want to see tucked into a thin tablet somehow. This and a kickstand.

Especially for a Blackberry product. I think it's dangerous for them to first go with Sprint and then market this as an enterprise item for business use when it will be frustrating to really use without a keyboard for serious typing that needs to be done to get paid. There has to be an evolution here, or else rely on something that everyone knows and is familiar with like the keyboard. There's a reason these touch devices are being ignored by office purchase decisions and instead buying the technologically prehistoric Blackberry phones instead - the keyboard.

 

[Pander Bear]

well we agree about that-- I don't think your experiences with the sprint network are generalizable, is all.

As for that keyboard, I haven't used it, so I can't comment, but it looks like a nightmare to me. If ever I have need of a number pad, or a full set of shift keys, I'm actually going to want something robust under my fingers-- at minimum, something like apple's bluetooth keyboard.

Enterprise class devices are always going to be comparatively prehistoric because it doesn't take bleeding edge tech to review information, and make an informed decision. Secondly, the IT departments supplying all the gear want established units to minimize retraining, implementation costs, et cetera. This tablet is obviously designed to get RIMM out of the niche it finds itself growing increasingly claustrophobic in-- I just don't know if its possible at this point. They would do better to try to figure out a game changer than to try to beat apple et al at their own game.