RIM “Professional Grade” PlayBook Strikes Back At Jobsian Internet Dream

The Register’s Gavin Clarke notes that RIM is touting its its new PlayBook as the world’s first “professional-grade” tablet, noting that General Motors’ GMC truck division claims its vehicles are “professional grade”, too – meaningless capitalizing on misguided popular belief that its trucks are somehow tougher, when in reality there’s nothing in terms of build, technology, or finish to differentiate GMC from either its clones sold by GM’s Chevrolet division, or indeed rival pickups from Ford, Dodge RAM, and Toyota.

Mellor notes that RIM has been building smartphones for the working classes – albeit pencil-necks instead of GMC’s leatherneck clientele – for 12 years, and is promising something founded on the tough and reliable heritage of the machine that made RIM’s name: the BlackBerry, and going up against Apple in an area where the iPad is both at its weakest and its strongest: Adobe’s Flash, and observes that by following the Flash road, RIM is doing something perhaps unintentionally ideological by serving up a version of the internet as it was probably imagined by Tim Berners-Lee instead of as it’s being reinvented by Steve Jobs. Using the PlayBook, you get the Jobs-free edition of the internet.

Mellor concludes that the PlayBook is a nice tablet but “professional grade?” No, it’s a tablet and RIM has a lot more work to do, having sold just 250,000 PlayBook units in its first four weeks compared one million a month for the “amateur” iPad when it launched, and that the 16GB version is actually $100 more expensive than the equivalent iPad, charging for the BlackBerry brand and not the PlayBook’s value.

Excellent, thoughtful review.

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