Shhhh. BlackBerry tablet released in NZ
The Playbook is here. Pity it got Black-buried.
NBR was surprised to learn this morning that the BlackBerry PlayBook - RIM's stab at the tablet market - is in fact available in New Zealand.
Vodafone started selling the PlayBook two weeks ago, priced at $899, a rep for the company said this morning (after reading this piece on Telecom's Motorola Xoom launch).
There was no launch event, the rep said, and no review stock (though if anyone at RIM's reading this, you're welcome to send an eval unit).
As far as NBR is aware, there wasn't even an email alert, either from Vodafone or RIM.
And as your correspondent types, the PlayBook seems AWOL from Vodafone's website.
It's a poor effort, only matched by HP's failure to even know if its WebOS tablet will even be launched in New Zealand, let alone when.
No wonder the iPad's on top.
(RIM - or at least its BlackBerry brand - is listed as an official Rugby World Cup sponsor. So far the company has only a placeholder page with 9 Facebook likes. But presumably it will shortly pick up the pace.)
Worth a look
Anyhow, if you find one, the PlayBook is worth checking out.
It has a 7-inch display, to the iPad's 9.7. The compactness will appeal to some. And everybody should like the high def screen, the PlayBook's ability to display Flash graphics, and its support for HSPA+, the fastest type of 3G.
Another of the PlayBook's defining features is that it has to be tethered to a BlackBerry handset for 3G data access (though the tablet itself can connect through wi-fi). And like tablets in the Android camp, it lacks the plethora of apps available for iPad users, but numbers are growing. Check out the New York Times' PlayBook review here; RIM's official PlayBook site here.
Chris Keall
Wed, 13 Jul 2011
Wed, 13 Jul 2011
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