[jimn367]

I think you missed my point a bit. Price points by competing products set expectations. Once again, [IMO] the PB is not going to sell on spec sheet attributes.

My point was that RIM needs to get people buying in to their platform, platform being defined as phone and tablet. Other than the bridge, there is [currently] absolutely nothing compelling about a Playbook. There may be exciting things "to come", but they are not "here". I cannot leave OS5 because there are apps that never made it to 6 and 6.1 that I use every day, let alone QNX.

Hardware specs don't matter as much as content and capability when it comes to tablets. And the Kindle fire is a LOT closer to a Playbook than you think... they are made by the same manufacturer. Go to engadget and look at the side by side.

Another mistake in logic. The PB is not in the same market as the iPad and Fire. The iPad and Fire are content delivery mechanisms with ties to cloud services, with different price points and capabilities. They are devices that can stand alone, or integrate nicely with an iphone or Android phone. The Playbook is a mighty nice piece of hardware that has a bridge to phones that are nose diving in sales and cannot stand alone.

[hrbuckley]

Interesting points. I agree, that to the extent RIM seeks to attract the consumer market content is going to be an important factor. For business users capability, secure and reliable communications and service delivery, is the primary motivator. Balance allows the combination of the two on a BlackBerry that isn't available on iOS or Android platforms. Content is there, and more is comming, perhaps not fast enough for most consumers. RIM does have to be careful not to screw up security in the pusuit of content however.

I've gone through the applications on my devices. Those that deliver content are either platform agnostic, or have equivalent content delivery products on all major platforms. Service delivery, at least for those services that are important in my enterprise, are only available on BlackBerry. That won't be enough for RIM to compete with iOS and Android, but it is certainly enough [IMO] to keep RIM in the game.

[jimn367]

It is a mistaken assumption I see on this board time and time again that there are not secure solutions available for iOS.

There are. They hobble the iOS devices (for example you cannot use editing in Docs To Go), but they exist. Same is coming for Android.

My top [personal] applications I use [excepting Google stuff], agnositic of platform are:
1) Kindle App
2) SiriusXM
3) Google Music (I may switch to Amazon)
None are available above OS 5 or available at all. Content delivery is a major issue for RIM. If it [Playbook] is just a bridge function then this is a Foleo without a keyboard, and I believe Celio already did it with Redfly for the Blackberry - and man is that succesful.
REDFLY - Companion

[hrbuckley]

Neither iOS nor Android have received the required approval for the type of data processing I'm involved with. So while I will conceed that there are features of iOS, and perhaps even Android that increase security above the out of the box consumer configuration, and these solutions may be acceptable and adequate for some users, they don't make the grade for everyone.

[tnhjr]

Developers need to step it up. With all the features I read about for developers I don't see the problem with more development of apps. I picked the wrong business I should've studied programming.

[jimn367]

Originally Posted by hrbuckley

Neither iOS nor Android have received the required approval for the type of data processing I'm involved with. So while I will conceed that there are features of iOS, and perhaps even Android that increase security above the out of the box consumer configuration, and these solutions may be acceptable and adequate for some users, they don't make the grade for everyone.

Dell Streak gets DISA approval, Androids look to Pentagon invasion -- Engadget

it's only a [very short] matter of time before Blackberry's only [perceived] remaining pillar is matched by iOS and Android.

For those remaining few with higher security needs they'll get lovely type I phones like this

Product Details - Sectéra® Edge

[jimn367]

We've gotten way off topic on this thread - getting back to point. The PB needs Android apps now in order to be able to utilize another OS's content delivery stream. We'll see if February is too late.

Even at $200 off I'm not willing to invest.

RIM needs to get back to basics and figure out what value added they bring today and tomorrow and adjust their strategy accordingly. Much as HP figured out (and they rightly surrendered early) there is no playing catch up to Apple and Amazon right now. You will spend millions to billions to be bringing "me too" to the market 6 months later.

I don't see how long-term a partial co-opt of Android returms RIM to a growing company, but it is a good and interesting interim solution.