[runinit]

Companies should really learn from Apple. When you announce a new product; have it ready to ship within in the month. Every single alternative tablet I have seen is coming Qx 2011. I don't want to wait for an alternative - i want it now.

[raganwald]

When you announce a new product; have it ready to ship within in the month (sic)

In martial arts they have this thing they call "telegraphing" a blow, where you unwittingly give your opponent plenty of notice of what's coming so that they can be ready to counter it.

Obviously RIM is so confident of their manufacturing and marketing prowess that they don't mind giving Apple 3-6 months notice of what they plan to ship.

On another subject, why is RIM even in this business? Are Apple iPads taking market share away from Blackberrys? Is iPad some kind of a threat to RIM? I would have guessed that RIM would be pouring all of its efforts into defending its corporate phone turf, not thinning their forces by launching new devices.

[varaon]

RIM is also leveraging their QNX acquisition for the OS here, so it seems like its a primary part of their game plan, and not a spin-off product.

[seanm]

Agreed. I think this is a way to make some money and work out the kinks of QNX-as-a-phone-OS.

Also, if this thing was 3G in addition to wifi, a lot of people would ditch their BBs in favour a PlayBook. As it is, I can't see this generation being a big hit. Kind of hope it is though.

[YooLi]

"Obviously RIM is so confident of their manufacturing and marketing prowess that they don't mind giving Apple 3-6 months notice of what they plan to ship."

Really? To me it reeks of "don't forget about us". They are telegraphing not because they are so confident in their punch but because they don't want people to forget they are in the fight.

[raganwald]

I apologise for being a little sarcastic. However, "Don't forget about us" is only useful if their customers, especially their "enterprise" customers, are about to standardize on iPads and can be persuaded to hold off on the basis of PR stunt.

It's not obvious to me that consumers interested in buying an iPad for back-to-school or during the holiday season will hold up their purchases to see what RIM actually ships and how much it costs.

[wvenable]

RIM really has nothing to lose -- they're not going to get this tablet out in time for Christmas 2010 so they might as well announce it now. They have little to gain in saying nothing until they launch because they're going to launch too late.

[raganwald]

When you put it like that, maybe we're missing the obvious. Maybe this isn't aimed at Apple, maybe it's aimed at HP.

[guywithabike]

That's the thing, though. They're not in the fight. They're still in the locker room putting their socks on.

[wvenable]

> On another subject, why is RIM even in this business?

Because these modern tablets are not scaled down PC's, they are scaled up phones.

[cubicle67]

That's how it appears, but I think it's a misleading view

I think this is where we're going to see companies OS decisions come into play in the next few years; iOS is (very loosely) a subset of OSX, but with a phone UI. There's loads of potential here for it to grow. I don't know much about Android, but I think it's similar.

[megablast]

Two reasons for this, that I can see. To take mind share away from Apple, so they do not get too big before anyone else has a chance, and to signal that they are actually doing something.

Tablets take a while, to design, get software going, and source parts for those big screens. Everyone is running behind, and running scared. They are not taking as long as they did to respond to the iPhone.

One thing it is going to come down to is the software, which all of these new entrants seem ignorant of. You can come up with any hardware stats you want, nobody cares about that. Sure, a camera can be useful, but the rest, who cares.

[jarek]

> Companies should really learn from Apple. When you announce a new product; have it ready to ship within in the month.

Just like the iPad was announced in late January to ship in April, right?

[runinit]

It's a bit different - Apple had the advantage of being the first on the market. They could afford to take some time before shipping the devices. Everyone else has to play catchup now; the longer they wait, the stronger the iPad becomes.

Apple does however release most of their products shortly after they are announced (new ipad nano, apple tv, iphone4)

[jsz0]

It really depends where you're at in the market. Apple and Google are on the attack and RIM is nervously awaiting the siege. If they can't ship they need to at least rally the troops and preach to the faithful. I'm guessing RIM did enough market research to understand that there is a major risk of users/developers jumping ship even in the next 6 months.

[gaius]

Alternatively, RIM are perfectly secure in their castle - there's little sign of any movement in their core corporate market to alternate devices. No need for them to panic, they want to do this right.

When I commute to work in the morning, and they announce the train is delayed (again!) out come 500 BlackBerries... It's quite a sight!

[lotusleaf1987]

Couldn't agree more, and plus the longer the wait the less it competes with the iPad first gen and the more it competes with the second gen iPad.