PlayBook due in a fortnight: Still no advertising campaign
"Order early. Brag often": the message we see on the pre-order sites. Well, I'm sure people would, had they even an inkling that the upcoming BlackBerry tablet even existed.
BerryReview pointed out that there has not been a single US or Canadian television commercial advertising the upcoming tablet. On this side of the pond in England, there too has been a strange, eering wall of silence from the BlackBerry maker.
It seems besides a few videos on the web, and the PlayBook website of course, there is very little marketing to show for the up and coming iPad competitor.
It's as if they're denying themselves a potential market, by brushing the tablet under the carpet before it has even launched. To be honest, I would not be surprised if that were the strategy of Research in Motion at this given moment in time.
It could be argued that the PlayBook is already facing the reality of being outshone and overshadowed by competing products; notably the iPad 2, which has seen sales rocket since its release. It was claimed today that Apple may have sold and shipped twice as many iPad 2 devices than they did in the first month of releasing the original iPad; estimating over 12 million in the first quarter of this year.
But let us not forget that the BlackBerry PlayBook operating system, based on QNX, is still in development even up until the minute of release. Last month, it emerged that the PlayBook would launch without a native email application, suggesting the work is still ongoing.
With less than a fortnight to go until the PlayBook is released, already it is looking bleak for the tablet.
Related content: