Apple, RIM rivalry heating up over apps, business
Though tension between Apple and RIM has been growing for some time, RIM took it to the next level earlier this week when it released a hands-on video comparing the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with Apple's iPad. In the video, the PlayBook is shown to render websites faster, run Flash, and perform better on Web standards tests. The PlayBook is set to debut in early 2011, priced at "under" $500 to compete with the iPad.
RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie then proceeded to add fuel to the fire by laying into Apple during this week's Web 2.0 conference. When asked what he would say if Apple CEO Steve Jobs were on stage, he replied with, "You finally showed up." Critical of the abundance of iOS apps that duplicate Web content, Balsillie claimed that "you don't need an app for the Web." That claim, however, is misleading, since, presumably, the PlayBook will itself require a Web browser application to take advantage of 'the web without limits' as advertised.
Balsillie and Jobs traded words last month after Jobs announced that the iPhone had outsold all BlackBerry phones in the September quarter. "I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future," said Jobs during the company's earnings call.
Jobs also expressed skepticism over the smaller 7-inch form factor of competing tablets, which includes the BlackBerry PlayBook. "We think the 7-inch tablets will be dead on arrival, and manufacturers will realize they're too small and abandon them next year. They'll then increase the size, abandoning the customers and developers who bought into the smaller format," he predicted.
Balsillie quickly fired back, asserting that Jobs' comments were irrelevant to people "who live outside of Apple's distortion field." "We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," wrote Balsillie on the official BlackBerry blog.
As Apple continues to make inroads into the enterprise market, the threat it poses to BlackBerry increases. Hoping to convince some of the business tablet users who went with the iPad and iPhone to switch back to the BlackBerry platform, RIM is pushing the PlayBook as a business device.
Bloomberg reports that RIM has achieved some early success with attracting corporate customers to the PlayBook. The Sun Life Financial insurance group has agreed to purchase as many as 1,000 PlayBook tablets, while several other companies have also committed to testing or purchasing the device. âThe encryption was really the clincher in opting for the PlayBook,â said Sun Life senior vice president Tom Reid.
Meanwhile, Apple will be ramping up its efforts to market the iPad to businesses."We haven't pushed [the iPad] real hard in business, and it's being grabbed out of our hands," Jobs said in October. According to Apple, over 65 percent of the Fortune 100 are already deploying or trying the iPad.
"We've got a tiger by the tail here, and this is a new model of computing which we've already got tens of millions of people trained on with the iPhone, and that lends itself to lots of different aspects of life, both personal and business," he said.
83 Comments
RIM is dead. Playbook is garbage. Blackberry phones are garbage. The iphone and android devices wipe the floor with the crap RIM devices.
Bogus article!
RIM is getting jacked up by Apple. There is no way in hell RIM is going to outdo the effing iPad. That crap we've been seeing is some off the shelf sh** RIM threw together in a last ditch effort to keep their stockholder sedated. Apple's DNA is software and hardware and thier forte is fusing the two together and making MAGIC!!
RIM ain't got that prowess.
And when the iPad 2 drops all hell will break loose in this mother******!!
Something that RIM far exceeds Apple in is easily enterprise encryption. I am sure many top companies or government contractors value that. However if Apple can match that level, provided they care to, then RIM is muerto.
Bogus article!
RIM is getting jacked up by Apple. There is no way in hell RIM is going to outdo the effing iPad. That crap we've been seeing is some off the shelf sh** RIM threw together in a last ditch effort to keep their stockholder sedated. Apple's DNA is software and hardware and thier forte is fusing the two together and making MAGIC!!
RIM ain't got that prowess.
And when the iPad 2 drops all hell will break loose in this mother******!!
A- RIM will not fail, as ghostface, pointed out below, encryption is something apple does not deal with much, and is important to many orginizations
Something that RIM far exceeds Apple in is easily enterprise encryption. I am sure many top companies or government contractors value that. However if Apple can match that level, provided they care to, then RIM is muerto.
RIM is dead. Playbook is garbage. Blackberry phones are garbage. The iphone and android devices wipe the floor with the crap RIM devices.
B- RIM is not dead (currently is dying however), don't judge a product before it arrives.
"We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," wrote Balsillie on the official BlackBerry blog.
Yet we should be told how to think, work and interact with technology products by a bunch of "Microsoft-wannabes" who have no idea how to develop a really innovative hardware/software product development strategy, or to design products that look good and are simple to use?
And Balsillie's rejection of the value of apps is just dumb, because the power and versatility of devices like the iPad can only be expressed by apps that are not just simple web browsers that run Adobe Flash. If he doesn't understand this by now, his Board should get rid of him pronto before RIM joins the 'wannabes' who can only watch as their customer bases desert them in droves for Apple products.