The BlackBerry PlayBook is out! There’s a lot to like. QNX OS, 7” form factor, muscular specs (1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM).  And I’ve always liked Berries, though I’ve drifted away of late because RIM has been living in the past in its phone designs. So will I succumb to the siren song of this latest, greatest gadget? Here are my thoughts, and I’d be very interested in yours.

Will I buy the PlayBook? Quite possibly. As I said, there’s a lot to like. But not yet. Several reasons.

First, the PlayBook seems to have been rushed to release (like the Xoom). Not only few apps, but more important, no native e-mail, contacts or calendar apps yet. You need a BlackBerry phone. Which I don’t have … yet. Native e-mail, contacts and calendar apps will be available “soon.” I believe it will happen. But “soon” is a relative term, which I’ve learned to distrust when spoken by manufacturers and carriers.

Second, while you don’t need a BlackBerry phone to pair (or bridge) with a PlayBook, it sure helps. My HTC Droid Incredible is getting long in the tooth, and I’m not married to the Android OS. However, there’s no currently available BlackBerry phone I’m interested in. There are several (Bold Touch, so-called Storm 3) that are interesting and may be coming this Summer. But there’re not out yet, or even officially announced (though that likely will happen in about 2 weeks at BlackBerry World).

Third, only the WiFi version is available now. 4G versions will be coming soon, though to which carriers remains to be seen (Verizon is reported to still be on the fence). I’m not saying I want embedded 4G. But I might.

Fourth, how carriers will handle the BlackBerry Bridge between a Berry phone and the PlayBook is still being sorted out. AT&T is blocking the bridge, supposedly because it still is “testing.” Or is it “stalling”? I’m sure a connection will be allowed. But will there be an extra cost?

Bottom line: I plan to wait until the new BlackBerry phones are available (my guess is July). And who knows then what other tablet choices will be available? HP’s WebOS tablet? Better Android Honeycomb tablets? We’ll see …

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 21st, 2011 at 7:29 am and is filed under BlackBerry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.