The Amazon Kindle Fire May Kill The RIM Playbook

As I was listening to Jeff Bezos introduce the Kindle Fire tablet I was thinking about the roll out of the Blackberry Playbook and all of its hype in the media, which was promptly followed by its dismal failure at the check-out counter. how vastly different was the approach by Research In Motion and Amazon, with likely very different outcomes for each company.

The Amazon Kindle Fire measures 4.7" x 7.5". it will provide access to Amazon's vast library and resources and may well seal the fate of the RIM Playbook.

The problem for RIM is that it failed to recognize a shift in the way consumers use their gadgets to communicate. Since the introduction of the first tablet by Apple, a lot of users now carry two devices as a matter of course and revert to traditional use of each. RIM should have characterized and capitalized on this shift to the two-device user, sort of like the two-car family.

Instead, RIM developed a marketing story specifically tailored for Blackberry users who wanted to extend the screen size and hardware capabilities of their handsets. I guess it was the only story they could come up with after they designed the tablet with all of its restrictions.

The reality is that Blackberry handsets are only smartphones in a technical sense, but not near as smart as the iPhone or Androids. I suggested to my contact at RIM that a Blackberry, with its 2.4” or 5” screen will never achieve the status of a true multi-purpose smart device.

Why not? the principle is simple: the Internet was not designed to be accessed or interacted with a really small screen. it is a compromise and a hassle if you are trying to do any work at all, other than reading e-mails or occasional web access. Apple recognized this basic truth with the development of the iPad, which is why about thirty million people also figured it out and bought one. it is an obvious and easily-understood concept. Provide a lightweight device with a large screen, fast processor, connectivity, lots of memory, and a full range of applications and you have a winning product.

So RIM, anxious to get into the tablet game and paranoid they would lose critical market share, rolled out a device with only short-range WiFi connectivity, a goofy scheme to bridge to a Blackberry for access to the Internet through a carrier, and essentially no applications software. the fact that the Playbook hardware and display are excellent does not really matter if the rest of the pieces are not there. they justified all of the negatives, saying that the Playbook was a “work in progress” and are still sticking to that line. In contrast, it would appear that the Amazon Kindle Fire is a finished, serious piece of work, ready to go when it starts shipping in November.

We were repeatedly told by RIM that applications, 4G, Android access, e-mail clients and everything else that were absent would be coming. “Just buy it and we will be sure to get it to you later” was the line. it is sort of like the Motorola Xoom 4G, which missed its opportunity to be the first in the market and almost eight months later they finally got their act together. At least they delivered a serious tablet that works. RIM has not, and likely will not, because in my view the Playbook was DOA and Amazon may well seal their fate with the new Kindle Fire.

RIM should have changed their marketing tack and said that the customer should carry a Blackberry handset for phone calls and e-mail and a tablet for Internet browsing, expanded e-mail, and access to lots of applications through the Android market. Given the Playbook’s excellent hardware, they might have sold the premise and lots of tablets, assuming they also had application support. but, just like the Blackberry Storm, they were too early with a product that was not ready for market. their haste may ultimately do irreversible damage to their company, if it has not already.

Ironically, the Amazon Kindle Fire may do what the Playbook could have accomplished but didn’t.

I use a ten-inch tablet for a lot of different functions when I travel including e-mail, Internet access, showing videos at meetings, PowerPoint presentations, access to cloud-based services, word docs, and a lot more. the Kindle Fire is what I would call a Tablette or scaled-down version of its big brother, akin to the Netbook compared to the Notebook. it will provide access to the Internet for browsing and media content with a seven-inch screen which, as Samsung and Blackberry correctly surmised, is quite sufficient for performing limited functions on the Internet. when the new Kindle comes out, I will likely carry it more often than my Xoom for travel, especially internationally unless I need the capabilities of a larger full-function tablet.

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