One thing Apple does well is announce something then release it shortly after. When the iPad 2 comes out it'll be fresh on everyones mind still. RIM needs to take a lesson it seems like they announce something and its not out for a long time. People forget about it

I was going to get the PlayBook at the start but now I'm reconsidering leaving RIM all together since they will open up BBM later in the year. Maybe the Xoom is in my future. As a loyal BB user, I'm disappointed in the BBM decision and the inability of RIM to get the PB out earlier.

RIM once again is like a fat kid in cake store, 2 days after his birthday.

FAIL.

RIM took way too much time with the Playbook. I was interested in it when it was announced, but this long crazy trade show information, and little peeks of it, just tired me out. It will fail along with quite a few others. Particularly the Xoom. Poor design and lousy all over the place Android OS does not make a good device.
Apple has the apps and the lead, and it will be difficult for those "copycats" to compete.
The iPad is already being bought by businesses and medical people, not to mention the educational field. This proves that SD slots, USB, RAM, and a host of other geeky PC crap is not where it's at. This is a Tablet product, not a computer product, and Jobs was correct when he said the "copycats" are not looking at this market correctly. Nobody can stand it, but Apple is the winner, and it's going to keep "WINNING!".

I'm hoping the playbook will come out on top.

One thing we all know is the market will be flooded in a few months with other tablets and 15 million is nothing. The other companies including RIM will take a HUGE chunk out of apple's market share.

I'm glad RIM took so long to release the Playbook. Plenty of time to save. This is a huge deal for RIM and they want to get it right.

Here's hoping the Playbook is number ONE !!!

Kevin, one of the PB's accessories (on the leaked accessory spec sheet) definitely mentions having built in "power saving" technology that turns off the PB, similar to phone cases. I'm specifically referring to the slip case and leather sleeve: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-playbook-accessory-prices

In the comparison chart you forgot to add can tether to mobile phone. Playbook: YES!

RIM need to learn how to work faster. The Playbook was announced in September, won't be released till April, that's 6-7 months. It looks like Apple has developed and is ready to launch their iPad2 in less time than that!

They've really shot themselves in the foot not getting PlayBook out there way ahead of the competitions' same-spec tablets. I'm getting kind of sick to have to wait so long for updates of any kind.... hardware, OS, app... fewer and fewer reasons to stick with BlackBerry.

Pick up the slack RIM!

My idea of a perfect tablet is all about the functionality of its sync capabilities and what kinds of apps it has since I will be using it for on the go computing when my laptop is to large and inconvenient to bring along. but I agree totally that Rim needs to release their products sooner I am really disappointed with the amount of time that has gone by since it was announced. RIM needs to realize that the best time to release a product is yesterday at least in the today's market! haha yeah see what I did there!

You know what would be great? If RIM relased this thing!

Sadly the number of apps available for the device is going to rule, just like the PC that had tons of support from 3rd parties creating software for it, the device that has the most apps that's shared amongst their peers will win.

I don't want to be the only person using this app, I want others to use it so I can share content and get support.

I'm curious why there is no SD card slot on the playbook? I suppose if you tether your phone you can access the card in the phone?

QUOTE FROM ABOVE"Looking at the chart above, I can't help but wonder which factor(s) will ultimately play the most important roll in determining what tablet a consumer ends up buying. Is it size? Is bigger better? "

although im a black berry fan and would love to see the blackberry playbook come out on top it may not although in my mind the playbook would be the better option i think ill get an ipad2 for this simple reason apps apps apps and more apps . playbook in my opinion although a better device cant compete with the amount of apps that apple already has .gamesss games and more games productivity apps etc im sorry to say this but rim should have been in a position to release before the ipad2 after showing off this device for what i consider to be a very long time

Ipad 2 ram = 512 mb , tipb.com is just ashamed of it and writes unknown.

It seems as if some people will never be satisfied.

In my opinion, RIM is trying to avoid making the same mistake it made with the Storm. It was their first step into the full-touchscreen phone market, and they pushed a rushed device into consumer's hands because of the anticipation. OUR anticipation for them to quickly release this phone. And the device was crap. The way the tablet market is, RIM can't afford to have an incomplete tablet on the shelves. The playbook HAS to be on point. If it takes just a month more or so to make sure all the kinks are worked out while having up-to-date features and specs, so be it. No one will be able to say its lacking.

Take your time, RIM.

Utterly relieved that I didn't purchase the first gen iPad. In fact, there is still no pressing need to buy a tablet. Microsoft is coming into this market soon and rumours are yet another iPad may surface later this year. There's going to be a lot of tablet junk on eBay in the near future.

All you posters whining about how long its taken RIM to develop the Playbook need to get a life. When they first announced it in Sept, they said it would be available in Q1 in the US. Well guess what, Q1 still hasn't passed. They have until March 31. I particularly liked the post from Brevit saying that Apple has developed and launced their iPad2 in less time. The iPad 1 has been out for a year - you are comparing the incremental release of a product to the rollout of an entirely new line with a new OS, ZERO development base (MaxiPad runs iPhone/iTouch apps).

The Playbook will come out in the next couple of weeks. It'll no doubt have some faults as any V1 device will and yet, I predict, it'll do quite well against Apple. I won't delude anyone into thinking that it'll take over the number 1 slot, but it will definitely be #2 and Apple survived just fine for 30 years as #2.

I find it funny how apple has framed the whole debate about tablets (and Phones). I guess you have to credit the fact that they are first., but seriously if the Playbook lives up to giving you the whole internet I'm going to take that over apps any day of the week.

Also there are about a million flash games, but everyone is going to count the number of apps in app world and say too few. Really it's so stupid. Look at it this way. Apple's iTunes store has what 150,000 apps, 300,000 apps. Go to you friend with an iPhone or a iPad and ask them to show you the 300,000 apps they have on their device. If they have more than 30 they probably aren;t using them.

Honestly RIM should roll out the a campaign based on the notion Playbook gives you the full internet why would you settle for less????

If the answer to that is apps then people should have their heads examined. I'm not saying you don't need any apps, but if you have the net you sure as hell don't need many.

It should be up to blogs like this one to be pointing that out .

After I get the playbook and someone comes to me with a iPad 2 I'm going to open up a flash website and say can you do that???

Playbook = FAIL! now all the hype is going for iPad2 when RIM had us all hooked up with PB, yet it was like dating a girl for 6 months and never getting even to second base....

All this about the spec comparisons...can we get a price comparison on this table...please?

i found that today on tipb after following a link on CB forum post. for one thing i think the only one that compares in anyway shape or form to the ipad is the playbook. i think it will come down to who's OS and CPU is best. both are 1ghz dual core, but how well is blackberry's a9 is. Qnx is a real wild card most of us know iOS but we have only seen glympses of reporters playing with the device. Btw after seeing the bbca's review on the ipad....... really that cover looks crappy on it and how can you make it thinner but still retain its weight? im meh'ed by the ipad it seems to same old same old with two camera's and pretty colors. But we shall see when everything goes live. i just wish rim would come out say hey yeagh we are releasing on april 10th yayyy, they are way to quiet about this. this should be considered huge i mean its a new deise market for them. they should be throwing info at us at such a speed our brains should start bleeding due to the fact that we cant handle it.

i have to admit that i'm a little disappointed that there's no SD or microSD slot (if pretty much every mfg can fit one in a damn cellphone, i don't see why they can't find a spot for one on a device that's 5x the size). having said that, it's obviously not just a RIM thing: seems like a lot of tablets are forgoing it for some reason. one thing i'd like to know is if any of these will have a USB port capable of supporting external peripherals: a tablet and a small 2.5" external HDD/SDD (or, hey!, a USB media card reader) would make a lightweight combo with a lot of storage for extra music or movie/video files. i know the iPad has a bunch of different types of dongles for different things, but i'd rather have a universal port rather than a proprietary one that requires me to buy different adaptors. being able to connect a small portable HDD or other type of storage without having to sync to a computer (or cloud storage) would be awesome.

my other major gripe is the cost: i mean, i don't quite understand why most of these things are so expensive. my full-feature laptop cost almost half as much as the Xoom! i have a really hard time even considering paying $800 for something that can't run "major" software. i mean, i understand that tablets, right now, aren't MEANT to be full-fledged computers, and that's fine...it's just ridiculous that many of them cost MORE than a decent desktop or laptop.

Unfortunately(for non-lovers of the name) apple showed z world again
HOW IT NEEDS TO BE DONE...
Announced, prepared and ready to be shipped worldwide(cause usa aint the only market u know)
Though apple has a big starting advantage, this year the competition is far more experienced, prepared and trained...
ON 1-side for ipad u have 65000 native apps, but it misses on the flash and i do think multitaskin will be "oddly" implemented...
Playbook was announced in sept will be available in april... Still PB has some good starting points on TRUE MULTITASKING, REAL FLASH and better cameras, as i see it...
Andro 3.0 is yet to be evaluated and tested, so does PB, but, i think that QnX is FAR MORE SUPERIOR SYSTEM THAN ANY OTHER, but qnx aint for selling here, but the product as a whole...

Good thing them pads aint to my likings, cause i'd have a tough time choosing 1...
Gonna stick to my gaming laptop instead... :p

Do Canadiens not have any sense of urgency?

Will the playbook come with a native email client ?

Sorry to cite another blog but I don't think you guys really compete.

FOR ME THIS SAYS IT ALL. PLEASE READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.berryreview.com/2011/03/03/why-i-choose-the-blackberry-playbo...

and no, I'm not him.

I was really hoping that the PB would be release early March since RIM did say it was going to be out by Q1 and yes I am going to go ahead and get an Ipad2 on march 11th because i can't wait any longer for the PB. Maybe if RIM announces the 10" PB in May and they deliver it by Q4 of 2012 I would have enough time to save up money for that.. also I think RIM just hanged it self by planning to release the BBM to other platforms.. SAD!

the reason the ipad2 is coming out so fast is because they aint really change nothin

The deciding factor? Available Now!

If they really didn't change nothin they are really fast, because then you have to count the time from ipad 1

All this hand wringing over the release of the playbook is just silly. It's like the market for tablets has already dried up or it will do so in a month. Do you think tablets will be sold this summer? next Christmas? If tablets do fly then the market is in its infancy. It's far better to get it right than be early.

The message from all Crackberry addicts should be please RIM get it right, not get it out now.

RIM only has one chance to get this right, IMHO, based on the market perception of RIM in the smartphone/tablet space. People know quality, even iProduct lovers. If RIM executes a product that is for most purposes flawless, aids in productivity and allows for the fun factor (games, music, videos, etc) then they can solidify a spot in the tablet-wars. If not, they will be sidelined before they start. Getting it right is especially important for them to retain their biggest client: Corporate America.

Can anyone believe this was honestly NOT going to happen?

Let's look at the facts:

When the playbook was announced it was almost all a video and mostly teaser information. RIM announced it, but they clearly didn't have everything ready - and people were saying this back then. IMO, that announcement was a stopgap measure to try to prevent people from jumping over and buying an iPad, the only tablet available, during the holiday season. Remember they had acquired QNX only a few months before! Building a new tablet OS from a new OS from the ground up would have to take more than a year.

And I think this theory is more true then ever when there was an iPad leak or info, soon after more Playbook information just so happen to pop up.

Knowing RIM's track record of jumping into a new market without taking time i.e. Storm 1, I would rather them wait and release the Playbook in perfect form, instead of rushing it.

Blackbook's the one I'm gonna choose. It is the most balanced and anyway there will be an ipad theme for those who want to mock the fruit basket users. Altough, the LG tablet seems pretty interesting

I see the ipad and I'm thinking I want one, then I see that a new one came out in less than a year but still (and never) no flash support. I see the Playbook, but no apps. And then there are Droids in the middle of everything with different OS and sizes. It's just a crap shoot. I guess people just have to look to see what is important to them and make the best decision. I think it's funny that the ipad's achilles heal could actually be flash support. Playbook, get dem droid apps and I am sold!

Like Kevin and am sure quite a few of us Blackberry addicts i own a 1st generation iPad. I have been desperately waiting for the Playbook to be released because oft he following factors:

1. Flash support
2. Size
3. Support for android apps too (icing on the cake)

But the waiting has made the playbook feel like yesterdays news sort of.. So just waiting for RIM to release it ASAP...

"I guess you have to credit the fact that they are first"

They weren't first. Tablet computers have been around for a long time. Microsoft had a tablet OS back in 2001.

They're just phenomenal at marketing. Helps if you have worshipers as opposed to consumers of course.

Still happy here, still waiting, lot of us still are. But we're used to waiting, we EXPECT to wait, 5-6 month delay before release, so? For bloods sake, we usually wait whole bloody years after a program, software and game has been announced!

Only gripe is the lack of info on expandable memory. Card slots are awesome. Could of put a SD Card slot in the darn thing, and burned the other competitors--it truely isn't expensive to manufacture a sd card slot, and give it HC capacity, man.... I got a 64 Gig SD Card that I'd of loved to put in it :)

BB has a business aura. I want a ipad or playbook that has all the MS Office business functions, pdf, text search, book reading and does not drives me nuts when family users are all using wireless itouch and I have no direct connect to my faster FIOS network.
I want ultimate control to stop a frozen screen or software app. I do not want an ipad that has no hardware button to shut down…

The bigges Spec and Comparison you are missing is that.......YOU CAN ACTUALLY BUY THESE OTHER TABLETS!!! RIM is always talking about what they are going to do, while other companies produce. I have hung in there for 4 years, Im done. Apple here I come

Come on Kevin!!... The winner is obviously obvious !! :p
We don't need a chart to prove it, simply seek for the device that have a Blackberry logo on it ;) :p

I have to agree with a few comments here, I would far rather RIM launched the Playbook when it is ready, rather than rushing it out to market, so many companies in all industries fall into that trap which may boost short term sales but will hurt them in the longer term when the issues caused by the lack of time spent getting it right all come flooding out.

Apple may have the marketing, but do they have the product to back it up, thinking about functionality and durability, okay, the iPad 1 has been around for a while so they should know what makes it durable, but no flash support is a definite no-no in my book.

Also there has been quite a stir caused by apple's decision to change the way their apps store works, many developers have been saying they are going to pull out of apple, some would say this is crazy as they would just be cutting off their nose to spite their face. However if you stop and think about it for a moment, if some or all of those developers jumped ship and joined the very lucrative BlackBerry apps world, they would have more freedom, flexibility and the way things are currently, make significantly better margins to boot. This has got to be worth more than a casual thought to those guys.

I also think that being registered as a Blackberry Developer, not that I have done much of that yet as its not my primary career, their offer to anyone creating apps for the PlayBook will recieve one free Playbook per organisation if their app is accepted and added to the BlackBerry App World. This offer doesnt close until midnight on 15 March.

I happen to think that with this offer in mind, we will all be surprised at the number of apps available for the Playbook when it does launch. In the longer term the number of apps will, I'm sure increase rapidly, particularly when developers are themselves able to get their hands on a real device. I think most developers will tell you that testing and debugging code on a simulator on the PC is an excellent feature and really useful, but somehow its still not the same as testing and debugging code on an actual device.

I would say RIM shouldn't be too disheartened that the iPad 2 launched a few weeks before the Playbook, but Apple arent without issues at the moment and RIM are certainly on the right road to producing a killer "package" starting with the hardware launch in a few weeks.

Think the race of the Hare and the Tortoise, the Hare has the head start but the Tortoise is never far behind and in fact wins the race in the end.

My wife has the Samsung Galaxy Tablet and is very pleased so far. Now that I am seeing them all compared side by side I am seeing that the Galaxy is even with them all if not superior to them all unless I am missing something? What am I missing here in this comparison? They don't even list the fact that the Galaxy does have the ability for extra memory via mini SD card and it's still even with or better in most areas. So again am I missing something?

I do not undetsand how can iPad fit into carporate.I have copmany provided iPad with GOOD configured on it.But I feel its not useful.I tried a lot but I really can't carry such a bulky machine with me while I am travlling,in meeting ,business trip etc.Secondly from the last 6 months we strugled to make it useful for our branch users.NO MDM available to send apps,profiles securly.Its only good while watching movies,playing Games at Home.It may be good for family and kids playing games etc.

Whareas I can see Playbook as extra advantage to fit into carporte.Users can buy their own playbook and pair it with their existing BB.User's can download whatever they want no security locking is required.They can carry with them all the time.They can even do presenation,no need to carry bulky laptops.Enjoy vedios,games,music while moving around at the same time they can be connected to carporates access emails,calendar,edit doc ,connect to Remote Deaktop and that too company doesn't need to pay extra and no security lock down required.

I am Very excited and confident RIM's Playbook can be a carporate Winner and consumer's freindly as well.

I believe that RIM announced the playbook too early. I recall being excited then disappointed by its laggy user interface. I believe, in future models, they should announce only when their software is at least 80% optimized. It was frustrating to see them announce the playbook and not allow people to get a hands-on.

Thank you very much for this. A simple and straightforward side-by-side comparison of all the options is far better than all of the trolling going on in the forums.

For all those nervous nellies and bashers yelling at RIM to release the playbook it is very interesting to note that RIM stock price hardly moved at the announcement of iPad 2. Clearly the people that put their money where their mouth is are not worried about the impact of the iPad 2 on RIM.

And for those who say the market already thinks the Playbook is fail. RIM's stock rebounded tremendously at the announcement of the Playbook and, again, has held steady with the announcement of the iPad 2.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. :)

Hat's off to Steve Jobs and Appls Folks in Marketing.
Why no one is talking about below?

iPad2 has only 256Mb RAM
No multitouch
No Bezel Gestures
No Flash AND HTML5 media support
Not even Megapixel Cameras
No MicroUSB and MiniHDMI(Needs extra dongle for HDMI)
Ofcourse No Enterprise Compatibility and Security
No 3D screen graphics
Nonsence Multitasking.
Extremly bulky and still difficult to carry in meeting,business trip etc

How can ipad 2 be the best tablet without all basic cool features.RIM has an oppurtunity here which provides lot othern fetures than above..

I hope thsi time time we won't get disappointed like Torch,storm launch etc..

And yes it will launch in March as per latest news coming from UK.Very Optimistic.

Kevin, to make your tablet comparison truly the best use all the same units so that we can easily compare between each tablet. What I mean is:

-add ppi to each screen size
-converting each camera to megapixels - VGA is 0.3 MP!!, 720p is 0.9 MP, 1080p is 2.1 MP
-battery (25 watt-hours for Li-ion) should be around 6750 mAh

Other than that, this is the best comparison I've seen.

Apple has this locked up ...lol @ rim coming out after the iPad2

They have no shot there are too many others out now

Doesn't Playbook have a T.I OMAP 4440 processor & a magnetometer?

I have a question about the processor. Isn't what Apple is calling an A5 also an Arm Cortex A9? Seems to me that they are both the same thing....

a lot of people commented about the fact that there is no sd card well the reasonig is a simple one no sd card means ulll have to keep buying there products over and over and over again think about it .

The play book is goint to be ready for everything you may throw its way ! You rock RIM !!!!

I'm just curious where all the playbooks sensors are?!

and as for: get it out now -vs- do it right ....

.... can't we have both?!

Not sure why the PlayBook specs in the chart would mention GPS, which hasn't been officially announced, but not also the magnetometer (digital compass) and gyroscope, which also haven't been officially announced. Jeff Gadway said in an interview video that it had all three, so why single out the GPS like that?

Agreed, RIM should take this as a learning experience.

Sure the Playbook will do okay but Apple has got their Announcement/Release time down packed and of course will sell tons more.

RIM has had their PB on their site for damn months! Literally giving us blue balls.

I'm really considering IPAD2 or an Android at this point.

I'll still be going Playbook for a few reasons. I refuse to use anything Android because of Google's snooping nature (see recording people's wifi with street view vans) and I dislike anything Apple due to their ironfist control over property you buy from them (and I can't change my own battery...really?) so that leaves HP and RIM. I've never had a major issue with my Blackberry phone that I couldn't handle myself so that's a big plus to me. The Playbook will also be able to use 4G so that further seals the deal for me.

I am a blackberry fan and despite loving bb i have to admit that the bb playbook was announced a year ago and RIM has not been able to launch the device up till now.

The Playbooks features are cool & everything, but RIM is taking too DARN long!!! I get they are trying not to rush, but in todays market, "Faster & Efficient" beats "slow & steady" anyday!!! Been holding out for the PB then all of a sudden, the Ipad2 is announced & set2release b4 the PB??? Also, i'm trying to buy a tablet here, not a FULL PC so some of the specs won't really matter to the average consumer. I mean, i don't see myself holding up a Tablet to take a picture, so the 5MP camera doesn't matter to me. I've always used a blackberry, would never buy the Iphone. But tablets are a different matter entirely. still haven't decided yet, but i'm leaning more to the ipad2.

I am a BB girl... I wasnt in the beginning I am now... I am one willing to do my homework and wait for the PB. I just have one question.. will it have an external keyboard that I can connect to it like th IPAD. I dont like typing on tablets... "nails"..(smile)

But I am not one to rush out buy just becuase it is there... I will research and wait for all the bugs to be fixed BEFORE I buy.

Blackberry's niche market is corporations. They must think of them first when protecting their turf. The fact that they have significantly tapped into consumer sales successfully is just icing on the cake. Don't get too upset that products do not come out timely. Their products must also cater to corporations which take more time. I, for one, do not appreciate the rapid fire of Apple upgrades which only makes my product obsolete every 6 months or so. I'd rather pay once and have something that will last a couple of years. I believe the playbook will be that product.

Have to say I'm very disappointed -- should have bought the IPad (and I am a loyal Blackberry girl) -- this thing is nothing more than a web browser (and slow at that) and monitor for my BB phone. No Netflix streaming (wrong operating platform, although it looks like IPad is compatible grrr), doesnt play Itunes movies without some ridiculous conversion process that (1) you have to buy (2) converts as one-by-one each movie plays on your computer so it takes forever, and (3) doesn't really work since the settings are so complicated and it downloads the whole conversion screen -- the actual movie shows up on 1/4 of the BB PB screen. Sigh. $750 down the drain... If BB fixes the above, I'm happy, but I refuse to simply ignore the 300+ ITunes movies I paid for (forget the music -- that I listen to on my Ipods) and the Netflix account I pay for every month to sign up for MORE accounts and pay MORE money for something that is compatible. May just take it back...

On the other hand, Flash for browsing is key, and I do like the size and feel of it -- it just is not very useful, frankly. RIM needs to get a grip -- I want a tablet I can use for business AND fun. We shouldn't have to choose. I would not have released this as-is.

Sadly, despite all this "innovation," no company has yet to figure out how to give parents the controls necessary to allow their kids to enjoy these devices without being exposed to either in-appropriate content, without the ability to rack up the charges on your credit card as they download content, or without the ability to have something as simple as a "kids" account that is controlled from a "parents" account that has the credit card information stored in it.
http://www.queentorrent.com