Research in Motion's having a rough couple of weeks. First, the Blackberry Playbook got panned by critics, snubbed by AT&T and dissed by Verizon Wireless. Now, RIM is angering Wall Street by slashing its Q1 forecast, thanks to weak smartphone sales. It didn't help that a Nielsen survey found Blackberry falling out of favor among consumers as Android desirability grows.
I chuckled at Apple’s explanation yesterday of its tablet sales coming up short of expectations: “We can’t make them fast enough,” Apple’s COO Tim Cook said during an earnings call with analysts. Were he speaking for any other company, his statement would have smacked of PR bluster, but Cook meant it literally: Apple’s suppliers can’t make the components for the iPad 2 as fast as Apple can sell the device.
The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet from Research In Motion goes on sale today, with what seems to be little consumer interest, mediocre reviews and few chances to match the success of Apple's iPad.
RIM has taken the wraps off the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and so far the reviews seem to be mixed. Shortcomings aside, though, the tablet has a number of qualities that make it uniquely suited for business use.
Research In Motion's iPad competitor, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, goes on sale April 19, but it's not ready for prime time. Reviewers who got their hands on the PlayBook early posted their thoughts on the tablet -- and it's not good news for RIM.
Android has a message for other mobile OS platforms: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." The latest results from comScore show that Android has ascended to the top slot for smartphone market share -- gobbling up market share from many of the rival platforms.
The BlackBerry PlayBook will soon move from vaporware to the real world. The seven-inch tablet will be available April 19 in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models that match the price of equivalent Apple iPad 2 models at $500, $600, and $700. The parity of storage capacity and price makes for a somewhat level playing field in comparing the two, so here are a few reasons that stand out to steer clear of the BlackBerry PlayBook.
It's the day after the big news that Research in Motion will, albeit indirectly, support Android 2.3 apps on its BlackBerry PlayBook -- and questions swirl over what this means for users, for RIM, for developers, and for the BlackBerry PlayBook itself.
Poor Research in Motion. No matter what the company does, it just can't seem to drum up excitement for its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
Apps are all about choice. And nowhere is choice more appealing than in the world of Web browsing. In the early days of smartphones, users had no choice but to use the browser that came installed with the operating system, but now we have multiple choices: This week saw the release of Mozilla's Firefox 4 for Mobile, and Opera's Mini 6 and Mobile 11. Both browsers look to expand on the bundled mobile browsers' functionality by adding easy-to-use features and social network sharing.
An iPhone app that measures smartphone radiation and offers tips on minimizing absorption has been nuked by Steve Jobs.
RIMs BlackBerry has been steadily losing share in the smart phone market, but RIM hopes it could use the cloud computing space to offer something new and exciting like it did when it came out with its then-revolutionary push e-mail service over a decade ago.
Google's Android is the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States -- but just barely, according to new numbers from the Nielsen Company. The metrics firm found that Android has captured 29 per cent of the hearts and minds of U.S. smartphone users, while Research In Motion's Blackberry and Apple's iPhone trail at 27 per cent each. The findings are a marked difference from a Nielsen report released in December that found the iPhone had about a four per cent lead on its Google rival. The December study also said Android and iPhone devices were equally desirable among U.S. users.
BlackBerry enthusiasts like to cite RIM's BlackBerry Messenger as a big reason to stick with the smartphone platform, but this perk may not be exclusive forever. According to Boy Genius Report's sources, Research in Motion plans to bring BBM to Android this year.
Photos that are allegedly of RIM's BlackBerry Bold Touch smartphone have been posted online by N4BB. The BlackBerry Bold Touch's design looks similar to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone. However, in addition to the full QWERTY keyboard the Bold Touch is equipped with a touchscreen.