Companies should really learn from Apple. When you announce a new product; have it ready to ship within in the month. Every single alternative tablet I have seen is coming Qx 2011. I don't want to wait for an alternative - i want it now.
In martial arts they have this thing they call "telegraphing" a blow, where you unwittingly give your opponent plenty of notice of what's coming so that they can be ready to counter it.
Obviously RIM is so confident of their manufacturing and marketing prowess that they don't mind giving Apple 3-6 months notice of what they plan to ship.
On another subject, why is RIM even in this business? Are Apple iPads taking market share away from Blackberrys? Is iPad some kind of a threat to RIM? I would have guessed that RIM would be pouring all of its efforts into defending its corporate phone turf, not thinning their forces by launching new devices.
Really? To me it reeks of "don't forget about us". They are telegraphing not because they are so confident in their punch but because they don't want people to forget they are in the fight.
It's not obvious to me that consumers interested in buying an iPad for back-to-school or during the holiday season will hold up their purchases to see what RIM actually ships and how much it costs.
Also, if this thing was 3G in addition to wifi, a lot of people would ditch their BBs in favour a PlayBook. As it is, I can't see this generation being a big hit. Kind of hope it is though.
Because these modern tablets are not scaled down PC's, they are scaled up phones.
I think this is where we're going to see companies OS decisions come into play in the next few years; iOS is (very loosely) a subset of OSX, but with a phone UI. There's loads of potential here for it to grow. I don't know much about Android, but I think it's similar.
Tablets take a while, to design, get software going, and source parts for those big screens. Everyone is running behind, and running scared. They are not taking as long as they did to respond to the iPhone.
One thing it is going to come down to is the software, which all of these new entrants seem ignorant of. You can come up with any hardware stats you want, nobody cares about that. Sure, a camera can be useful, but the rest, who cares.
Just like the iPad was announced in late January to ship in April, right?
Apple does however release most of their products shortly after they are announced (new ipad nano, apple tv, iphone4)
When I commute to work in the morning, and they announce the train is delayed (again!) out come 500 BlackBerries... It's quite a sight!