Wow, this is a huge downer.

The world is about to end!

This is not good at all for RIM on launch day. I am glad I am waiting until next month b4 I think about getting one

how do you pump up a device for well over a year, and lack such basic functions at release??

It gets worse and worse. Buggy devices sent to the media for review, botched pre-orderes from Staples and Best Buy (and possibly others), AT&T blocking support for BlackBerry Bridge, and now missing features on launch day.

What a shocking mess this is.

The apple folks are going to have a field day. I want a PB but this is not a good start

Two weeks is not the end of the world. I thnk the apple approach of not offering something until it has been ironed out is better than giving something half baked.
I guess this is what many will argue, the Playbook being a half baked device.

I'll play devil's advocate.

A Wifi, un-bridged PlayBook, still is way more powerful and a far better investment that all/most/you_choose any other tablet out there.

The bridge is a nice add-on for BB owners. That BBM is not there at launch sucks, but I don't think this is the end of the world.

Let's not forget that when iPhone first came out, there was no app store, etc......

It's just that we're accustomed to certain things now. So it glares more when BBM is not available in Bridge mode at launch.

This just helps cement my decision to wait on a PlayBook purchase (not that I have the $ for it now anyway).

Thanks for confirming that. I was going crazy trying to get it working!

Posted from my PlayBook!

I hate to say it, but this is retarded. Common RIM!!! Are you serious?! You've had 9 months and you can't find a way to have bbm on your tablet?? Seriously, bbm is the reason half of us are sticking with BlackBerry in the first place! I'm getting sick of this junky PR work. RIM is making a fool of it self. Bbm has me hooked so I'll stay around, but please RIM, get your act together, incase you haven't noticed - the whole world is watching.

Not a deal breaker for me...but as a non-technical person, I don't see why it would be so hard for RIM to have BBM implemented on the Playbook already. Can someone explain?

This is just untrustfull ! over a year and they cant get together what they offert ? i havent even fininsh the initial set up and now is when they post here that the BBM will not be avaliable untill two more weeks ?
not even apple does this. yes i am upset.

I'm a BB fan but even I have to admit that this is simply just a poor showing for an already amusingly disappointing launch of a new product. RIM has only been hyping and talking about this product since last year and they can not even get what is arguably the most famous BB app to work on its new professional grade tablet! I am glad I got my tablet - working on the setup right now as I type this - but honestly, this is just another example of how unprepared RIM is for today's market.

Wow, this is really ridiculous. I've been going back and forth deciding between the PB and an iPad2 and from what I've been reading here and in the forums, the PB is turning out to be full of problems. Pretty concerning.

Wow what a bunch of whiners. Their talking like 2 weeks until it's functional. I personally would rather have the tablet as it's functioning now than wait several months for additional features to be released before I can get my hands on it. I have an iPad 2 already, and guess what? There's no bbm available on that either, so what other option do you have???

6 months later you'd think they'd have everything ready by launch day SMH...

RIM has written the playbook on how not to launch a device.

Okay we know it's coming in 2 weeks or whatever but we all just want it NOW - I must admit it is frustrating to know PB was not really finalized for today's launch - i do understand however they must have huge pressure from investors to get it out ASAP.... I still vote for PB over iPad2 which my wife owns (which i find only great for games so far).

You people need to stop crying like little b****es, like seriously! You have your PlayBook, enjoy it, use it without BBM for few weeks, it's not gonna kill you. Use BBM on your phone, it's not like they discontinued it or something. Download some movies, use the HDMI, do some browsing, use flash. You'll get your update.

The PB affair has been the biggest Marketing and PR clusterfuck in contemporary product launch history!

Ya know I would back RIM to the end about certain things but this is NOT ONE OF THEM. Ppl have been anxiously waiting and you tell them after shelling out $500 US to wait again for your killer app?

I think you guys in the US shouldn't buy another PB until BBM is at least ready......

You get your new fancy fire truck and now gotta wait on the sirens to be shipped.....

very misleading to users and a little off side I think

Dude it's not about crying or been an asshole on just one Little huge detail which NOBODY said anything about till Today "LAUNCH DAY" , not even here in crackberry. I am Blackberry Adict 101% but they should been straigth with us. the product it's much superior than Ipad yes it is! i agree.

OK I had to come to Crackberry to get a "work around" to even have bridge on my AT&T Torch. Will I need another "work around" to then get BBM when it drops? Most likely! Is there going to BE one for that? What if there isn't? Im just shelling out hundreds of bucs for something I may NEVER get to fully make use of like I expected! What about the other 99% of BB owners who have not discovered Crackberry? When they go shell out big bucs and get home and figure out that their carrier has totaly nutered their Playbook they are going to be madder than crap!

exactly... i have the same damm ploblem with my torch and AT&T, and i havent eve mention about it, PLUS the BBM ? WTF RIM?

How many of us would buy a new BB Phone without BBM installed or to hear it isn't ready for OS6.1?

Ah it now becomes clear huh.....I love BB to the hilt but I gotta call BS when I see it.....

but here in the Czech Republic will be the playbook for several months, so by then hopefully will be fixed :-)

Folks. Just went into staples, tried out the pb!!! It rocks! Solid product. I can live without bbm for a couple weeks, as long as I know its coming. Gonna be rockin a pb soon. LoL the bridge was flawless, setup on the store demo model in seconds and was viewing emails etc... Worked great.

Sometimes I wish they put QNX on their 2011 phones first followed by a tablet

I picked my playbook this morning....this is the first time I come up for air! You guys can cry all you want, but you're missing out on a great device! It's solid and it rocks.....

Based on how good BlackBerry Bridge is... I'm willing to cut RIM some slack and wait... the PB is awesome!

what the eff? what were all those demos aboot ?!!? i've seen videos of peeple (incl CrackBerry Kev) on BBM via bridge! RIM propoganda?!!? SAY IT AIN'T SOOOOOO

Could this mean BBM 6 might come out in a couple weeks?

Come onnnn folks! Seriously, is this even an issue? Seriously, u knew wat u were getting at launch. Plus the mere fact that u have bbm already on ur phone is good. U ppl are starting to sound like the ppl bitching about native email. U have email on ur phone, ur laptop, ur pc, ur work email. How many times do u wanna read the same email. I personally don't want the native email, cause damn email is everywhere!

Not an issue for me at all. At a launch party dude seemed pretty confident and said BBM will work with bridge on your PlayBook at LAUNCH. So what the hell heppened? LMFAO!!! Here's the video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OG-P0EJ2YA

yet another core function of your BB that isn't available for Playbook..... so sad :(... they really should have waited and launched this thing in 2-3 months when everything was ready.

This is like Apple not shipping iTunes on the iPad.

Shame on RIM

I bought my Playbook today, but I must say, RIM has done every possible thing to F....up the Playbook's chances in the tablet market space. I really feel bad for the company I defended so much on the RIM hate blogs. Serious RIM, when will you guys get it back together. If QNX is the future OS of the blackberry smartphones, you have started very very wrong. I am hanging on as a fan, but I don't know how much longer I can wait for RIM to get it together.

I am on my Playbook right now typing this message. Everything works perfectly. Dayum the critics. :)

Haha man I am pissing my pants. The device was announced 7 months ago and has been "pumped" so hard and on launch day it misses the one thing that BB is proud off (BBM).
Man if they waited for 7 months, they could have waited another month. Its like buying a new car but missing the windscreen wipers. Yeah well get them shipped to you before the rain season gets to you lol.

if they could do everything else except bbm, there must be some new features that they are still working on.

when we do see it, we should hopefully see something quite exciting - if not. FOR SHAME :P

it should have been on there at lunch,but at least playbook users wont half to wait long

Why is Crackberry spinning this story? No Blackberry Messenger, the one service that Blackberry owners point to as the distinguishing feature of their devices - even though Blackberry Messenger only works with Blackberries - is missing from the Blackberry Playbook. A reasonable person would call this a big bag of failure but Crackberry concludes: "So there you have it. It's coming soon." Crackberry.com is the FoxNews of gadget sites.

So far I am really impressed with the PB. UPdates, Bridge, Browser, connecting to different WIFI's. Yes I'm disappointed about BBM but the intergration between the BB phone is great. I just feel sorry for all those non BB phone users. With bridge I can open and see all my attachments, this is sweet. I didn't expect the PB to be perfect out of the box but I think RIM has a winner for us BB phone users!

I like tablet with Adobe flash in it, so I tried all the tablet's internet browser (iPad2,Samsung Galaxy,Motorola Xoom, Acer iconia 10", Playbook) and the result is Playbook is the best for playing adobe flash in the tablet's internet browser right now. Asus Eee tablet 12" and Fujitsu Lifebook 10" are exceptions because these are fully computer functionality so no doubt. I'm sure Playbook is a good investment in the future because we can pairing Blackberry and Playbook so we can get a lot of advantage with it that another brand haven't done yet.
Just wait until RIM fixed all the buggies, at least Bridge connection,video chat and BBM.

I saw yesterday a clip on you tube. It is a demo for BBM on playbook uploaded by some users. How come some people can use BBM on playbook and it is not even released yet?