A couple of days ago in our HackBerry BBM group, an interesting discussion arose around the tablet market after BergerKing and sf18443 pointed out that Motorola’s Xoom tablet, which has been out for over a month, only has around 50 specific apps designed for its Honeycomb 3.0 Android Os.
I’m not here to say the PlayBook is better or vice versa. However, it’s unfair for the national media to throw the PlayBook under the bus, the way it has been for past 6 months. Unlike RIM, Google released their SDK for the XOOM only about a month before the release of the XOOM tablet and an official release, the day before.
After reading PlayBook reviews that were published yesterday all over the web, I traced back and looked at XOOM review articles just to get a comparison of the analysis content. Just as we (BlackBerry enthusiasts) expected, there is a very strong biased direction out there that just isn’t right. My prime example is the New York Times and author David Pouge. On Feb 23, 2011 he wrote a raving review over the XOOM and COMPLETELY FAILED to mention that out of the box, only 15 specific apps were available for the XOOM tablet. Yesterday, Mr. Pogue’s PlayBook review article looks nothing like the one he wrote two months ago. Pogue’s title says it all with, “A BlackBerry Tablet, but Where Are the Apps?” Examine his conclusion quotes and see for yourself
- In the meantime, Motorola should be congratulated for the Xoom. For xealous tablet fans, it’s an excellent, xesty tablet with a xany price tag — but a lot of xip.
- 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.
I for one am smart enough not to believe everything I hear so as a loyal brand owner (BlackBerry), the words coming from disloyal brand reviewers shouldn’t be taken to heart. Before you’re quick to rush and judge, you yourself should think the same way.