My Free Playbook
I love shiny new gadgets and probably buy more of them than I should, so I was really excited to get the latest PlayBook for free and before its UK launch. BlackBerry is going all out to tempt developers with free devices and I like it. There was even a lovely thank you letter that accompanied it which was a really nice touch. The only thanks you’ll ever get for writing apps for apples platform is a new TOS to read.
A couple of weeks ago at Seven, I had the opportunity to play with a beta device but it was running an older OS that was full of bugs and lacked any useful apps to test. I’m glad to say the retail version with the latest update has so far been a much better experience. With all the recent less than glowing reviews, I thought I’d try and write up my unbiased opinion about my free device that I never paid a penny for. It’s brilliant! There’s the full web with Flash. You can build apps using Adobe AIR or Web Works. The multi tasking is smooth. But the thing I like most about the PlayBook is its size. I can see myself carrying this and actually using it out and about which is something I’ve never felt comfortable doing with my iPad.
The less technical reviewers and the apple fan boys are quick to point out the lack of an email client but that detracts from a unique feature that’s sure to impress those who handle corporate emails. Average Joe consumer will soon be inundated with third party email apps as well as RIM’s native one but there’s a real use case for only syncing certain apps via Blackberry Bridge. I’ve personally seen iPads swapping hands around an office and even being sent to clients with sensitive emails still on them. It’s a slick professional device and if RIM made a smartphone that looked just like it based on the same QNX OS then I’d be the first to buy it.
Right now, it’s the only competition to the iPad as the first batch of honeycomb tablets were less than impressive. Until manufacturers redesign and sell tablets without honeycomb’s horrible default theme, it’s never going to appeal to the mass consumer market. It’s no threat to the iPad but RIM has delivered something true to its brand and professional/enterprise roots where I suspect it’s going to dominate the market over the more expensive, more restrictive and less functional iPad.
