We feel for RIM, honestly we do. First, the company records record smartphone shipments yet their stock price slides and now early reviews of their BlackBerry PlayBook, by large, are less than favorable. Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, while speaking to the Wall Street Journal, dropped details on standalone email support – a move which should silence most critics.
60. That’s how many days you’ll need to wait before the BlackBerry PlayBook lands its own “native” email client. Until then, you’ll need to embrace the slate’s healthy co-dependence which requires you own a BlackBerry smartphone in order to enjoy its full capabilities when it goes on sale next week in North America.
If you’ve been following the BlackBerry PlayBook launch, and we imagine you have, you know Android app support is a huge win for RIM. Both in terms of attracting potential buyers to the PlayBook, but also for developers currently coding apps for Android. The costs of hiring new in-house developers, strictly for the BlackBerry Tablet OS, might be out of the reach for smaller firms – this bridges the gap.
RIM’s Jim Balsillie re-confirmed earlier reports which announced a Summer 2011 release for the Android app player. Now that we’ve heard the good word from Mr. Balsillie, it’s time to sound off. Is 60 days too long in this rapidly evolving mobile world?
WSJ [via crackberry]
