November 06,2012
The BlackBerry Play Book is the first design and entrance into the Tablet Computer industry by Research In Motion (RIM). It is long awaited innovation expected by RIM Fans who naturally are addicted to the purchase and use of RIM devices despite of its short fall sometimes back.
In the eyes of many, it is a temporary setback going by the giant strides and achievements of the Company in the Smartphone industry at least the ability to maintain such dominance for about a decade with its attendant qualities.
The essence of this discourse is to review how much of these expectations were met by the release of the BlackBerry Play Book, which was officially launched on April 19th, 2011. Of course there are already big players in the industry before this release like Apple ipad. So users have enough platform and basis for comparison.
The BlackBerry Play Book Operating system is based on QNX Neutrino acquired by Research In Motion. It was first released in April 19, 2011. A revised edition of its Operating System was released in February, 2012. As a result of the “rocky start to life” witnessed by the BlackBerry PlayBook, a number of adjustment was made after it’s launched. There were a number of applications that was apparently absent in the new BlackBerry PlayBook such as standalone email, Calendar and third-party applications.
The BlackBerry PlayBook has to rely on the BlackBerry Smartphone through BlackBerry Bridge for this functionality. Perhaps the aim for this by RIM is that BlackBerry devices devotees will have no option than to possess both devices. However this was contrary to expectations from the sales report at launch and the immediate period that ensued.
The new Operating System 2.0 serves as a system software upgrade to correct inherent shortcomings of the BlackBerry PlayBook. With the release of this Operating System, the third-party applications such as the Android applications can now be downloaded from the BlackBerry application world Store.
The Operating System 2.0 encompasses an integration of an email, Calendar and contacts applications. It however does not integrate BlackBerry Messenger application. The BlackBerry Bridge application Software via the BlackBerry Smartphone still has to be employed whenever there is the need to use the Messenger. This is expected to be improved upon during subsequent updates.
The BlackBerry PlayBook has 3MP front camera and 5MP at the rear. The video recording capacity for both is 1080p and a micro HDMI video output. It has a high resolution 7inch screen display(1024 x 600 px,WSVGA),0.38inches thick,7.6 inches high and 5.1 inches wide. It has micro HDMI and USB port, three pin charging unit. Texas OMAP 4430 Duo core 1GHZ CPU, 1GB RAM. It weighs 425g which make it very handy as compared to other Tablets of the same class.
In terms of Data protection, The BlackBerry PlayBook stands out as the most secured as it operate on the same level of data encryption as the BlackBerry Smartphone. This made it the first Tablet to receive FIPS 140-2 Certification.
Research In Motion is of the hope that the market share of its Tablet will do better with the passage of time as management result to go back to the drawing board. The expectations before the lunched of the Tablet though were not achieved as commented by some users relative to its competitors such as the Apple ipad2. To some reviewers, RIM stands the chance of making any difference expected if only given the time and the readiness of management to make necessary adjustments going by history haven enjoy such dominance in the Smartphone market for that length of time.
Feel free to give your comments in this regard.