BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK IN THE WORLD OF TABLETS!

I had the opportunity to visit some lucrative mobile shops of Islamabad for some personal business, but this very large BlackBerry box on display distracted me. I tried to calculate in my mind, what it was? Was it a Torch or another new BB model, No couldn’t be? The box is too large, eventually I asked the shop owner what it was, and I was told that it was the new BlackBerry Playbook!

A BlackBerry Playbook is BlackBerry’s version of a Tablet phone, such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab! The playbook is half the size of the iPad but larger than that of a Galaxy Tab. The device has a solid build and being a BlackBerry it runs on the latest RIM powered BlackBerry Tablet OS.

I had always admired a BlackBerry for its complete build and exquisite performance! Though regular smartphones from Samsung, HTC and Apple are way more powerful than BlackBerrys and have more features to them, Still today BlackBerry has always been interested towards the Business class, with its QWERTY type metallic keyboard, glossy display and chrome build which signifies a persons class. However! They are more preferred by the Teenagers who find them more interesting, its BBM (BlackBerry Messaging) facility!

Having a Playbook right in front of me on the shelf I was shocked! I wanted to take a glimpse in the box and have my way fiddling with the device and what it had to offer, and almost unintentionally I must have thought out loud “I bet these are selling like crazy!” because the shopkeeper replied that “Are you kidding, these were the biggest mistake of my career!”

Although they are really good in design and performance the Playbook is not a successful Tablet device here in Pakistan due to several reasons,

1- The Tablet market is the iPad’s monopoly, even the Galaxy Tab is having trouble in the market; BlackBerry simply has no chance in the market where 80-90% of the customers are biased!

2- People are not yet aware to the fact that there is a BlackBerry Tablet device out there, which kills the curiosity factor in the customers!

3- Apple and Android are head to head on a stiff competition regarding Application stores with Apple with its “App store” and Android with its “Play Store”, BlackBerry is not even close in the Application development department to compel someone to buy the Playbook!

So, the final verdict: Don’t Bother!