Is the BlackBerry PlayBook equipped to survive?

San Francisco: The long anticipated Research in Motion’s (RIM) tablet, the Blackberry PlayBook, has been unveiled at the ongoing Blackberry Developers' Conference 2010 (September 27-30) in San Francisco. The tablet sports a seven inch touchscreen display and two high definition cameras. It also features computer monitors and TV outlets for it to display material. The PlayBook is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and runs on the newly developed BlackBerry Tablet operating system. The new Blackberry Tablet platform has been by developed by QNX Software Systems, a company that RIM acquired earlier in the year from Harman International. The Playbook supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1 multimedia software. Connectivity wise, the tablet has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. However, the PlayBook has to be linked with a BlackBerry smartphone to access a cellular network. RIM has announced that the PlayBook will go on sale early 2011 but did not mention anything about the pricing of the same. By releasing the tablet next year, RIM will lose out on a crucial sales period during the holiday buying season. Considering iPad is the biggest competitor for the PlayBook, rumors are rife that Apple will launch a new version of iPad sometime before the middle of next year. This further will put the PlayBook in the danger of being overlooked in the presence of the new iPad. While in the iPad topic, the iPad features a 9.7 inch screen which the consumers have already adapted to. The big iPad screen makes for excellent viewing of entertainment content. At such a juncture, RIM’s decision to have a seven inch screen may not be so viable. Also RIM is being very ambiguous by not clearly pronouncing exactly who the PlayBook is for, enterprises or consumers? RIM should realize which market it wishes the tablet to be focused on and then work on that particular market. In the recent past, two of RIM’s products – Torch and Storm 2 – have not met with desired reactions and have generated lot of negative vibes for RIM’s brand. This brings a lot of pressure and expectations on the PlayBook. RIM has a lot of bad air to clear with its PlayBook. While many are already pointing several loopholes in the PlayBook, it remains to be seen if the PlayBook will help RIM regain its lost glory.