Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the once-iconic must-have corporate accessory Blackberry phones launched its tablet computing device Playbook in India
Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the once-iconic must-have corporate accessory Blackberry phones launched its tablet computing device Playbook in India, on Wednesday nearly two months after its North America launch and several rival device launches.
RIM is “very bullish” about India prospects of Playbook - priced at between Rs28-35,000 - both among enterprises and consumers, a new audience that the troubled Canadian smartphone-maker is trying to woo.
RIM does not “disclose country level sales data or revenue,” but Sunil Lalvani, RIM’s India director for enterprise sales, emphasises that India is a “very important” market and that sales here is growing at a brisk pace.
For a company whose global director for marketing (Keith Pardy) quit weeks before Playbook’s mid-April North America launch and whose share price has fallen over 50% this year, triggering takeover rumours, Lalvani is extremely optimistic about the BlackBerry’s India story.
Analysts however say that sales volume for such devices in Indian enterprise market is not significant as enterprises here take a longer to warm up to such devices
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“Though many tablets PCs have been launched, none of them have been able to penetrate deeper into the enterprise market,” said Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at technology researcher Gartner Inc.
“RIM’s large following of loyal users should help it meet its objectives in smartphone segment, but tablets still have a case to prove to the RIM following.”
In consumer market, Playbook faces stiff competition from rival products such as Apple’s iPad and a host of other tablet PCs from device makers such as Samsung, Motorola and Acer, based on Google’s Android operating system.
Content is proving to be the key differentiator among tablet PCs. Being an open platform Android has the fan following of an army of developers who contribute to the application or App database - an area where RIM’s inadequacy is being increasingly felt.
Analysts feel that Playbook may be less competitive at comparable price points, due to the lack of a strong application ecosystem.
Oddly enough Playbook does not have standalone access to secure corporate email that Blackberry is known for, unless it is connected to a BlackBerry phone using a BlackBerry Bridge that works on bluetooh technology. Playbook also does not have 3G or other carrier-based mode of internet access, for which the user have to be in a Wi-Fi environment.
“Tablet market shipments show a clear preference for 10-inch, due to its ability to support more-robust two-hand typing and larger viewing areas for apps — especially video,” said Gartner’s Vishal Tripathy.
If that is true, Playbook may have missed the form factor bus too.
As a company RIM has made a conscious effort in the recent past to break out of boardroom and seek acceptance among the youth, whose attention the company managed to get with the very popular ‘BlackBerry Boys’ advertisement campaign.
However, given the lack of content in the form of applications and absence of 3G access, RIM will likely find it tough to convince consumers to choose its tablet PC over those of the rivals.
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