RIM launches new line of PlayBook tablets

The BlackBerry PlayBook. PHOTO COURTESY RESEARCH IN MOTION

TORONTO - Research In Motion chose its home country to launch a PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular networks, a crucial feature that its initial models lacked.

The BlackBerry maker said on Thursday that the new tablets will be launched in Canada next week and rolled out in coming months in the United States, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The PlayBook tablet, launched more than a year ago, is strategically important for RIM as it is the first product to use the QNX operating system RIM will move onto a new generation of BlackBerry phones designed to compete with sexier devices already on the market.

But the PlayBook was widely criticized at launch for lacking basic features such as email, and it has failed to wow consumers despite sharply discounted pricing and a major software upgrade. REUTERS

Source: www.todayonline.com

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RIM desperately hopes to rewrite the PlayBook

WATERLOO (Ontario) - In a rare interview last week, Mr Mike Lazaridis, one of two chief executives at Research In Motion (RIM), was the one asking the questions.

"Why is it that people don't appreciate our profits? Why is it that people don't appreciate our growth? Why is it that people don't appreciate the fact that we spent the last four years going global? Why is it that people don't appreciate that we have 500 carriers in 170 countries with products in almost 30 languages?"

He wrapped up by saying: "I don't fully understand why there's this negative sentiment, and I just don't have the time to battle it. In the end, what I've learned is you've just got to prove it over and over and over."

Mr Lazaridis can point to numbers that back up his frustrated defence of RIM, maker of the BlackBerry. During its last fiscal year, the company shipped a record 52.3 million phones - up 43 per cent over the previous year - and its fourth-quarter income of US$924 million (S$1.16 billion) exceeded forecasts.

Nevertheless, as RIM prepares to introduce its first tablet, the PlayBook, next Tuesday, doubts about its future have arguably never been greater.

Some analysts suggest that RIM has lost its momentum and may now be heading downward, much like Palm, which was once expected to rub out the then-fledgling RIM. Current BlackBerrys are hobbled with an ageing operating system, and the company's market growth last year seems less impressive when compared with Apple's 93-per-cent rise in iPhone shipments.

In a world where applications have become a major selling point for mobile devices, the number of apps available for BlackBerry phones is in the tens of thousands, compared with the hundreds of thousands for Android and Apple devices. BlackBerrys are still prized for their email capabilities, particularly among government and corporate customers who rely on the devices' tight security. But it is increasingly common to find people who carry a BlackBerry for email and an iPhone for everything else.

"They've been caught flat-footed," former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassee said of RIM. "They are not idiots, but they've behaved like idiots."

Mr Jim Balsillie, RIM's other CEO, said that if it had moved earlier to introduce the PlayBook - a 7-inch, 425g, dual-core processor tablet - it could have improved perceptions of the firm.

Still, RIM has something Android phone-makers and Apple lack: Access to the corporations and governments that have been buying fleets of BlackBerrys for years. As on the BlackBerry, RIM will give companies control over the features and data on employees' PlayBooks, and the devices will have access to a high-security global data network.

And this loyal market may suffice for the Canadian company. Mr Balsillie suggested that RIM might no longer aspire to rule the mobile world, and hinted that having a piece of a fast-growing pie would be enough.

"How many people in the world have computing devices in phones, and how many do we have to sell to ensure that we're a rip-roaring success over the next five years?" he asked. "You'll find that you don't have to be all things to all people."

by THE NEW YORK TIMES
04:46 AM Apr 12, 2011

Source: www.todayonline.com

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BlackBerry maker RIM unveils 'PlayBook' tablet computer

AN FRANCISCO: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion unveiled a touchscreen tablet computer on Monday called "PlayBook" aimed at business users.

"It is the world's first professional tablet," RIM president and co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis said as he showed off the device at an RIM event in San Francisco.

The PlayBook is one of a number of tablet computers slated for release in a bid to challenge Apple's popular iPad and is the first foray outside the mobile phone realm for the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM.

The PlayBook has a seven-inch (17.8-centimetre) touchscreen, smaller than the 9.7 inches of Apple's iPad, and also plays Adobe Flash video software, which is banned from the Apple device.

"You are going to be able to get the full Web experience," Lazaridis said, stressing its integration with RIM's BlackBerry smartphone, a favourite among many professionals.

BlackBerry smartphone users can pair their handset with the PlayBook using a Bluetooth connection to view their email, calendar, documents or other content.

The PlayBook also features front- and rear-facing cameras to support video conferencing and allows multi-tasking between programmes.

RIM expects to begin selling PlayBooks in the United States in early 2011 and rolling the tablets out to other countries by the middle of the year.

Lazaridis did not reveal how much RIM plans to charge for the PlayBook.

"RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world's most robust and flexible operating systems," Lazaridis said.

"The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised Web browsing and high performance multimedia," he said.

RIM said that in the coming weeks it would release a software kit so third-party developers can begin tailoring applications, or "apps," for PlayBook.

PlayBook debuted at BlackBerry DEVCON, a combined boot camp and pep rally for outside developers crafting programmes for the Canadian firm's devices.

RIM introduced tools that make it easier to build applications for BlackBerry handsets and make money with ads or "in-app" purchases.

RIM is also launching a free analytics service that provides applications makers with feedback regarding how, when and where BlackBerry owners are using programmes.

"We are enabling developers to better monetise their services and drive deeper engagement to create richer, more interesting social apps for BlackBerry," said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry platform.

Approximately 35 million people use the BlackBerry "App World" shop, with 1.5 million programmes downloaded daily, according to RIM vice president of global alliances and developer relationships Tyler Lessard.

RIM released tools intended to let developers make "super apps" that can work with data in smartphones to automatically handle tasks such as sensing when a BlackBerry user is driving in a car and read email messages aloud.

RIM also opened the door to more "social" applications that tap into phone features such as chat, instant messaging, and groups, according to Lessard.

Hip, fun or functional programmes made by third-party developers have become vital to the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers.

Apple's App Store features more than 250,000 mini-programmes for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Blackberry's App World has about 11,000 applications, but programmes are also sold at other websites by developers.

Google has been aggressively working to expand an Android Marketplace, which boasts more than 80,000 apps for smartphones running on the California Internet titan's Android mobile operating system.

- AFP/de

Posted: 28 September 2010 0629 hrs

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1083762/1/.html

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