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Blackberry Wireless Networking

RIM PlayBook Email App Nowhere In Sight 163

judgecorp writes "RIM has delayed the 2.0 release of its tablet's Playbook OS until 2012, and admitted it won't have the BlackBerry email app. PlayBook users will only be able to do BlackBerry email on their tablets by linking with a BlackBerry phone, for the foreseeable future."
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RIM PlayBook Email App Nowhere In Sight

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  • by mehrotra.akash ( 1539473 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2011 @03:03PM (#37848146)
    So, a Blackberry without email? Seriously?
    • by Palshife ( 60519 )

      Been that way since day one. Seriously. I can't imagine how they've sold even one of these things.

      • Yes but the promise was it would be corrected in an update due sometime summer 2011. That has pased, the update has been pushed back, but the mail functionality isn't on the update list anymore.
        • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

          How?
          A basic email client in something that a couple guys could crank out in a month. That is being pretty generous, too. I can't imagine the messenger is any more complicated.

          • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            Well, you can always use webmail :). Since it has Flash, it'll give you True Web Experience(tm)!

            (Unfortunately, like the HP touchPad, it runs Flash all the time...).

            As for BBM, apparently the problem is that BBM makes the assumption of one PIN per member, and I don't think Playbooks have PINs (and now you have a problem of two PINs if it's also linked to a blackberry). BBM being an extension of what used to be "free" messaging by PIN that goes all the way back to the original mobitex blackberries.

            • PlayBooks have PINs, but you're right that a large part is the one-user-one-PIN model that BBM, as well as BIS (commercial email) and BES (enterprise email+collab), use.

              That, and the code that supports it is probably pretty crufty---so much so that they cancelled the BBOS VM that would have been an easy way to run these apps on the PlayBook. It's the same problem that keeps delaying their QNX-based phones: getting a messaging infrastructure that's rickety, old, secure as hell and run on the same stuff for

      • I'm stunned. I've already predicted RIM's eventual demise as they get crushed, Night At The Roxbury style, between iPhone and Android.

        But this makes me think I need to review my RIM Intrade strategy right sharpish.

        Honestly, couldn't they at least ginned up some quick webmail app or something? Playbook's got a browser, right?
        • The managers and CEOs really seem like they don't have a clue, and are stuck living in the "Blackberry dominated past"-mindset.
        • But this makes me think I need to review my RIM Intrade strategy right sharpish.

          What, you didn't buy puts on RIM LEAP's when they announced their QNX strategy?
           

        • I have a Blackberry. I love it (as much as anyone can love a phone) And I'm also somewhat sensitive to choosing the wrong platform, being a former Amiga guy.

          For all the talk of RIMs demise, around here (Toronto) in my informal survey of people I see with phones, BlackBerries dominate. I ride the TTC a fair bit, and I have never seen an iPhone on the TTC. Never. I've seen a couple of Android phones, but BlackBerries I see by the dozens. And not just in the hands of government or corporate types - I mean the

          • I have a Blackberry. I love it (as much as anyone can love a phone) And I'm also somewhat sensitive to choosing the wrong platform, being a former Amiga guy.

            For all the talk of RIMs demise, around here (Toronto) in my informal survey of people I see with phones, BlackBerries dominate. I ride the TTC a fair bit, and I have never seen an iPhone on the TTC. Never. I've seen a couple of Android phones, but BlackBerries I see by the dozens. And not just in the hands of government or corporate types - I mean the kids too.

            I've tried very hard to avoid self-selection bias so it's not just fanboi recognition - I think it's real data (for as much worth as it is)

            DG

            With all due respect... it's just hard to imagine you've NEVER SEEN an iPhone on the Toronto subway system, if you're really surveying that much. I could no more believe that, than believe the Blackberry tablet truly has no email client.

            • by DG ( 989 )

              I honestly have never seen an iPhone there.

              Plenty of iPods... but no phone.

              There were a couple of times I thought I saw one, but they turned out to be Droid phones.

              Now they are undoubtedly around - my bubble of "phone awareness" doesn't encompass the whole train after all. I'm not claiming that "nobody has one". But the density seems low; whereas the BB density is universally high.

              DG

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      Well, it DOES have email through BlackBerry Bridge. This actually makes a lot of sense. See, if I'm deploying tablets in an enterprise where I already have BlackBerry phones deployed, I have to do nothing except drop off a stack of tablets.

      Any user who grabs one has instant access to their calendar, contacts, email, and files. If they pass the tablet off to a coworker, their info is gone, and the new user has access to all of their data.

      In the enterprise, discouraging the use of native email (you can st

      • Ok, you as an It enterprise guy worry about data & set up time and everything, I get that. But what does the company actually gain by purchasing a tablet? What does it provide that the blackberry phone it connects to does not provide? A larger screen?

    • But they will get native email in February.
      It's BlackBerry Messenger that they won't get. Because the BBM is tied to a single device, so they haven't solved the problem of having the same messages on both devices at once.
      • Thats still 4 months away
        I'm not sure what BBM is about, but if its like a chat service, then google figured it out long back
        Why would blackberry take sooooooo long
  • It's one thing to rush out a product incomplete. It's another to be so incompetent that you can't fulfill the promises that were made.
    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      I must have missed the part where the PlayBook was incomplete. It had everything they indented and promised at the time it was released.

      Native email was purposefully omitted. Apple does this all the time. You've ALWAYS had email on the PlayBook through BlackBerry Bridge. There are numerous advantages to this, which I and many others have repeated in every playbook thread on Slashdot. Besides, if you want native email, you can just use one of many third-party email applications, or even web mail (like mos

      • by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2011 @10:33PM (#37852032)

        I must have missed the part where the PlayBook was incomplete. It had everything they indented and promised at the time it was released.

        What part of it was promised [wired.com] to have email and BBM and contacts by summer 2011 is not clear?

        If you don’t have a BlackBerry phone, you’re out of luck until summer, when RIM says a future software update will bring native clients to the PlayBook.

        And then summer 2011 came and went. Now the functionality will be delayed all the way back to 2012. And BBM will not be part of that update. So RIM promised features that are supposed to be part of the tablet. But has not delivered and one feature will not be delivered nearly 9 months if it is ever delivered.

        RIM promoted the PlayBook as "Your BlackBerry, Amplified". A BB phone is, consequently, a key part of the PlayBook experience.

        So a PlayBook is useless without a BB phone? Please. How can RIMM position the PlayBook as the competitor to Android and iPad and then say it has to be tethered. You are in serious denial.

  • What's Canadian English for, "They're f*cked" ?

  • I bought my playbook on the premise I'd be able to actually fucking USE it for something soon.

    So now it will continue to sit on my desk ignored and unused.

    Anyone wanna buy a playbook?

    (I know, hell of a sales pitch.)

    • "I bought my playbook on the premise I'd be able to actually fucking USE it for something soon."

      That's why I'm a LATE adopter. Everyone else should beta test so I can learn from their experience.

    • by Bogtha ( 906264 )
      Does the country you live in not have consumer protection laws of any kind? They promised functionality thy haven't delivered. In most countries you'd be well within your rights to take it back for a full refund. It's not fit for purpose.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    "Email is not important [yet]", remarked RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, "It is certainly not something at RIM has focused on in the past. When e-mail catches on you can be sure that RIM will be at the forefront."

  • RIM??? They still wasting revenue chasing their proprietary pipe dream? I have 3 letters for them: D.O.A.
  • I actually RTFA... (Score:5, Informative)

    by delirium28 ( 641609 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2011 @03:10PM (#37848262) Journal
    And they provide a link to the official blog [blackberry.com], where it clearly states that the delay is for BlackBerry Messenger, *not* the enterprise email app. They simply don't mention anything about enterprise email there at all.
    • Maybe this part of the blog says it:

      The software update will add advanced integrated email, calendar and contact apps, a new video store, as well as new functionality that will allow your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook to work together even better.

      To me it's not clear whether you will finally get separate email and contacts or whether you will still need a BB smartphone.

  • At this point, would it be fair to describe the Playbook as the "RIM Foleo [wikipedia.org]"?
    • No, it was fair to call it the Foleo when it was released. Now, you're just late. Its like deciding to declare the Roman empire to have fallen. Its not false, just not current news.

  • by EmperorOfCanada ( 1332175 ) on Wednesday October 26, 2011 @03:17PM (#37848364)
    RIM keeps blah blahing about having billions in revenue. Revenue is great but profits are the only thing that matter in the end. RIM is probably one quarter away from being profitless. Then they will have to cut to the bone.
    The best laugh I had was where they got this skateboarder type who was developing some "Rad" app for them. This was a baby boomer interpretation of being youthful. They might as well had they guy developing from on top of a surfboard.
    RIM is following in the footsteps of Novell, and Word Perfect. Once they lost growth and market domination the end came far more quickly than you would have thought.
    What I am waiting for is this moment when they realize that their numbers are so awful that they will be instantly ruined. This might be when they pull a Nortel and start cooking the books. Minimally I predict they will start noodling the books to the maximum allowed by the loosest of accounting standards. Hiding costs and somehow booking future revenues now.
  • Well that's a bit of a sticky wicket now isn't it?
  • RIMs official blog post on their website that is linked to states "bring our...email integration capabilities to the tablet category." Only BBM is being delayed with no view in sight. http://blogs.blackberry.com/2011/10/blackberry-playbook-2-update/ [blackberry.com]
  • The arrival of Playbook OS 2.0 has been put off till February 2012, according to a blog post, which also revealed that the new version will not contain the long-awaited BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application, which would allow Playbook users to access BlackBerry email without hooking up to a BlackBerry phone.

    Whoever wrote this article doesn't understand the difference between BBM and email. RIM has said that BBM is delayed out of the Feb. release and has said nothing about email. BBM and email are two different things.

  • Yes, there isn't a native email application...but who cares? Browse to whatever webmail you're using and you're fine.

    (Of course that doesn't work if you're not using something with a web front end. But even my old alma mater has a web front end for its email and it's got 1500 students.)

    • The point of an email app is so that it can sync message bodies while you have connectivity, and read them when offline (e.g. on the plane). Also, notifications for when new emails come up. Synchronization with contact list in the device. And so on, and so forth... webmail is not an adequate replacement.

    • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Yeah, because webmail is such a wonderful user experience, even on a full size screen with a mouse and keyboard where it's DESIGNED to be used.

      Seriously, not having an e-mail client is inexcusable and "just use webmail!" is about as silly as when Jobs said "just use web apps!" Except Jobs was either kidding or realized his mistake and fixed it.

    • It also doesn't work if you're a corporation that has to comply with Safe Harbor regulations, which is kind of the point. The corporation is RIM's customer, and they aren't delivering anything close to what the customer needs.

    • Yes, there isn't a native email application...but who cares? Browse to whatever webmail you're using and you're fine.

      (Of course that doesn't work if you're not using something with a web front end. But even my old alma mater has a web front end for its email and it's got 1500 students.)

      How's that work when I'm not in WiFi range. Or when I need to look up a number quickly? How do calendar alerts pop up?

  • The linked site states "the new version will not contain the long-awaited BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application, which would allow Playbook users to access BlackBerry email without hooking up to a BlackBerry phone." That isn't what BlackBerry Messenger does, the linked site is full of crap and has no clue what they're talking about. OS 2.0 will have email, but no BBM. Read the press release. http://blogs.blackberry.com/2011/10/blackberry-playbook-2-update/ [blackberry.com]
  • As long as they keep giving out free tablets to developers at GDC, they can delay it as long as they want.
  • RIM was already losing market share, hand over fist, to Android and iOS for some time. Then along comes the iPad, and RIM's executives apparently decide they can jump into that space AND force a resurgence in Blackberry phone sales by requiring their new tablet to tether to a Blackberry phone in order to do anything particularly useful.

    Since the Playbook was intended specifically to require a Blackberry - why is anyone surprised at this delay? In my mind, the only question is whether this is actually a tech

    • I think it was a technical problem. RIMM promised email by summer 2011 so it appears they rushed the PlayBook out before it was done.

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