RIM jumping on the tablet bandwagon

Today, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion announced their version of the tablet, the Playbook, which is due out next year. It will use a new platform, QNX Software Systems, instead of their BlackBerry 6 operating system and promises "an uncompromised Web experience."

But the question still remains, Can anybody beat the ipad? According to T. Michael Walkley's estimates (below), not likely.

RIM's Playbook will only be able to connect to the internet via Wi-fi though plans to offer 3G and 4G are in the works. No price has been announced for this product yet, though its 7 inch screen and 1GB offering will have to be priced much lower than the current Wi-fi 16GB that is going for $499.

Although tablets are increasingly more popular right now, for me, nothing beats reading a good old fashioned book.

Kindle Takes on the iPad

Has anyone seen the new TV commercial for Amazon's Kindle? It pretty much disses the iPad.

The ad shows a guy trying to use his iPad by the pool, without very much luck given the bright sunny day. He asks the girl next to him how she's able to read, and she responds: "It's a Kindle."

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I thought this ad was pretty interesting for 2 reasons:

1. The ad is a direct attack on Apple

2. The iPad has not established a significant presence in the ebook market yet. The main competitors are still Kindle and Nook.

It'll be interesting to see if Apple responds to this ad, or if they just let it slide!

iPad and digital content

As a former journalist who watched many newspapers disintegrate in the face of the Internet, I have been interested in how certain newspapers have succeeded and others have failed. The Wall Street Journal has a target audience who will pay for content. It can keep itself close, and has been doing very well financially. Other newspapers, like the Boston Globe have been hemorrhaging, because no one wants to pay.

I was particularly interested when I saw a Charlie Rose PBS special about the iPad and digital publishing:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10952
A big-time European media mogul was thrilled when the iPad came out. The reason: it uses a paying model for content. That means that his German newspaper could charge for content, and it would, charging only 10% less than the paper version.

Of course, Apple gets a cut when you subscribe. A big question is whether newspapers want to be at the beck and call of Apple and other device manufacturers. A bigger question is whether they have a choice.

Apple's iPad and Netbook sales

Has Apple iPad launch really cannibalized the sales of the netbooks as a subsegment in the personal computer sector?

The graph seems to show a clear trend for now.  We will have to wait and see what the netbbok manufacturers do in terms of adapting their product strategies over the next year.