901am

New Media News Every Morning

RIM Offering Free Blackberry Playbook’s To Developers?

By

After rebutting Steve Jobs for dismissing Blackberry as a serious mobile contender, Mike Lazaridis (co-CEO of RIM) made a surprising announcement after publicly demoing the Blackberry Playbook abilities (which appears at the end of this video).

RIM President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis showcased some amazing BlackBerry PlayBook apps yesterday at the Adobe MAX conference with Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe. The above video highlights some of what Mike and Kevin demoed during the keynote, such as the BlackBerry PlayBook’s multimedia capabilities (including web based videos using Adobe Flash), multitasking and the eUnity healthcare application. All apps demoed during the keynote were built by developers working with the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR as part of an early access program. (Blackberry Developer Blog)

Although this move may help the company acquire some developer mind share, its still unclear whether consumers themselves will leap at the chance of owning a Blackberry Tablet, despite the fact that it supports flash (unlike the iPad).

While allowing developers to keep a Blackberry Playbook is a smart move for RIM (as it will help grow RIM’s anemic app store), the company may want to consider allowing developers to “borrow” a Playbook in order to test out their apps (as simulations can only take you so far).

Either way it’s great to see RIM actually demo the device in public, although only time will tell whether the Playbook will help revive RIM’s app store (which currently pales in comparison to Apple’s iPad app store).

Originally posted on October 26, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

RIM To Steve Jobs: Our Playbook Is Better Than Your iPad

By

After Cupertino’s CEO publicly dissed Blackberry’s during his anti-Android speech (the latter which he focused mostly upon), RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie decided to post a response rebutting Steve Jobs claims regarding the folly of 7 inch tablets.

For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7” tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. (Inside Blackberry)

Jim Balsille also refuted Apple’s claims of RIM’s declining sales regarding Blackberry devices by pointing out that Apple was comparing its summer quarter to Apple’s fall quarter (as more gadgets sell during the fall than the summer).

As far as the tablet is concerned, whether RIM’s Playbook will be able to challenge the iPad in the future has yet to be seen, although RIM may have difficulty dethroning Apple as other rivals (like the PalmPad and the Chrome Tablet) appearing on the scene in the not so distant future.

Originally posted on October 20, 2010 @ 2:11 pm

Out: Blackpad. In: Playbook? (RIM Tablet)

By

After showcasing their Blackberry Torch, it looks like the smartphone giant has decided against calling their tablet “blackpad” (which was a stupid name truthfully) and has instead embraced Playbook. Yes, seriously.

The tablet thus far seems eerily familiar to the iPad, although unlike Steve Jobs greatest creation the Playbook can view flash websites which should make up for RIM’s anemic app store.

It also boasts a 3 MP front facing camera (note: iPad 2.0 will probably receive this as well), as well as a 5 MP rear camera which should help give the Playbook some distinction in the tablet wars.

Unlike the iPad however, I’m seeing no mention of a built in 3G service, although they do say you will need a Blackberry smartphone if you want to surf the net outside of WiFi.

Either way it’s smart that RIM is debuting the Playbook now before the world goes ga-ga over the iPad this holiday season.

Note: Unfortunately for HP, Playbook’s debut makes it all the harder for them to make a webOS comeback with PalmPad (although their HP Slate should keep the company relevant through 2011).

Originally posted on September 27, 2010 @ 6:28 pm

Did RIM Commit The Sin Of Palm Pre? (Blackberry Tourch 9800)

By

RIM has official unveiled their latest smartphone, the Blackberry Torch which sports their latest mobile OS, Blackberry 6.

Overall the BB smartphone looks very impressive, and it looks as if RIM has successfully bridged the gap between the corporate world and the  consumer (something even the mighty iDevice has struggled at).

While the Blackberry Torch is no iPhone killer (then again, what really is?), RIM may have just committed their first mistake, one that brings up memories of another smartphone by the name of Palm Pre.

Despite boasting an elegant design, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard, Palm made the fatal mistake by choosing Sprint as its premier carrier at a time when the network was very unpopular in the US. [Read more…]

Originally posted on August 3, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

Blackberry To Release Its First Decent Smartphone?

By

Despite being adopted by every corporate exec under the sun, I have always found Blackberry smartphones to be annoying at best, and frustrating at worst (hence the reason why I always avoided owning one).

However it looks like the boys and girls at RIM are about to unleash an impressive Blackberry to the masses, one that will appeal to touch screen addicts as well as those embracing physical keyboards. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 7, 2010 @ 3:43 pm