PlayBook: A Tablet With a Case Of Codependency
Now entering the tablet wars: the BlackBerry PlayBook, a contender from Research In Motion, maker of the iconic smartphone. — Unlike most tablets aiming to take on the iPad juggernaut, the PlayBook, which I've been testing for five days …
Context & Ripple Effects
RIM positioned the PlayBook first around enterprise demand: its secure-tablet pitch to companies had attracted attention well before launch. The product also arrived as RIM sought a business rebound, while a March announcement of Android-app support signaled that software availability was already a central competitive issue.
The PlayBook’s dependence on a BlackBerry handset changes that proposition. Rather than standing alone against the iPad, it primarily extends the value of RIM’s existing BlackBerry customer base.
First-order effects
- BlackBerry owners are the immediate addressable audience, while buyers without a RIM phone face a less complete tablet proposition.
- RIM must sell the PlayBook as a companion device, limiting its ability to win customers directly from the iPad on standalone utility.
Second-order effects
- Enterprise IT buyers evaluating secure tablets must weigh the PlayBook’s fit with deployed BlackBerry phones against the added requirement to maintain that handset relationship.
- RIM’s promised Android-app support becomes more important because a companion-device model gives developers and consumers fewer reasons to prioritize a separate PlayBook software ecosystem.
Third-order effects
- If tablet buyers favor devices that work independently of a particular phone, vendors with tightly coupled hardware portfolios risk being confined to their installed base rather than expanding it.
- The tablet market is separating into standalone computing products and accessory-like extensions of phone platforms, with app availability and cross-device integration determining which category a device occupies.
The trend: Tablets are becoming a test of whether mobile platforms can extend beyond their installed handset base without imposing new device dependencies.