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Codebreaker

PlayBook reviews are in and they are not good

John Moe Apr 14, 2011

Research In Motion’s long awaited tablet is now in the hands of reviewers and they’re not digging it so much. Which is really enormously bad news for a company that has slipped badly in trying to keep up with the Apple and Android markets.

Here are arguably the top three most influential reviewers out there with their opinions:

  • Walt Mossberg: Still, unless you are constantly glued to a BlackBerry phone, or do all your email, contacts and calendar tasks via a browser, I recommend waiting on the PlayBook until more independently usable versions with the promised additions are available.

    • David Pogue: The PlayBook, then, is convenient, fast and coherently designed. But in its current half-baked form, it seems almost silly to try to assess it, let alone buy it.

    • Joshua Topolsky: But the PlayBook isn’t hitting home runs just yet. The OS is still buggy and somewhat touchy. Third-party apps are a desert right now, if not in number, then certainly in quality. The lack of native email and calendar support hurts. The worst part, however, is that I can’t think of a single reason to recommend this tablet over the iPad 2, or for that matter… the Xoom. And that’s what it really boils down to here; what is the compelling feature that will make buyers choose the PlayBook over something else? I don’t have that answer, but that’s not what’s troubling me — what troubles me is that I don’t think RIM has the answer either… and they should by now.

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