Does Larry write articles slamming RIM everyday? Wonderful a tablet that "looks" like the Playbook. Amazing how most tablets look like each other. Where were the articles saying the same about the Galaxy 10.1 and iPad 2?
Let's see what Amazon actually announces and the hardware specs. With RIM's price reduction they are right around $249 for 16GB model.
Has there been any Android tablet that has wowed people? The OS is not really geared for a tablet. Honeycomb is still very rough. Slam RIM for lack of 3rd party Apps, no NDK and the typical no native email but the QNX OS is very nice and works as advertised. OS 2.0 needs to be something special. If not I'll slam RIM myself.
Like Apple, it makes sense to buy into Amazon's ecosystem if you consume it. I prefer to bring my own media which seems to be growing more and more harder to do. Buy the tablet, and keep the credit card handy to keep on consuming.
What if you could have Research in Motion’s PlayBook with different software and better content connections? And what if this tablet was cheaper than the PlayBook by a wide margin?
Those questions must be downright haunting to RIM executives right now.
MG Siegler at TechCrunch says the Kindle tablet name is Fire, but the more interesting item is that Amazon’s device looks a lot like the PlayBook. According to Ryan Block at GDGT, the Kindle tablet is a PlayBook made by Quanta.
RIM’s PlayBook has decent hardware. What it doesn’t have is apps and native email/calendar—at least yet. The PlayBook also doesn’t have much in the way of sales either—200,000 units in the last quarter or half of what was expected.
I can see RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie sweating now as he mumbles about QNX being the future.
The PlayBook deathblow comes when Amazon prices this Kindle tablet. If the Fire comes in at $250, RIM will have to match and probably go lower. Sure you could argue that QNX is way better than what Amazon’s version of Android can do, but few shoppers are going to care. RIM could find itself saddled with a ton of PlayBooks if it’s not careful.
If this Amazon launch plays out the way it’s expected, RIM is in trouble with the PlayBook. The ledger looks like this:
- RIM and Amazon hardware would be roughly equal.
- QNX vs. Android 2.1 advantage to RIM.
- Movies, e-books, apps, TV, music integration goes to Amazon.
- Overall advantage goes to Amazon because no Prime subscriber is going to care. And by the way no consumer at Best Buy will care either.
RIM needs to step it up with PlayBook 2.0 in a hurry. The Amazon impact on RIM is huge. If RIM’s QNX update in mid-October doesn’t wow the masses it’s going to look like Android 2.1 is better. That perception will taint QNX, which is the linchpin of RIM’s superphone strategy.
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