RIM CEO Stumbles Through PlayBook Damage Control

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of Research In Motion, went on the offensive after the first wave of reviews for the company's PlayBook had the audacity to point out the tablet's faults. 

RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis must be sweating right about now. On the eve of what is arguably the company's biggest and most important product launch, the early reviews of its PlayBook tablet conclude that the device isn't yet ready for prime time. In fact, many reviews state quite simply "don't buy it"--at least, not now.

The biggest gripe about the PlayBook is that it doesn't natively support email, calendar, and contacts data. Instead, BlackBerry email is accessible only when the PlayBook is tethered via Bluetooth to an actual BlackBerry. Research in Motion believes this is a security feature, but let's call it what it really is: a huge mistake.

Balsillie's response is troubling. "I don't think that's fair," he said of the negative reviews. "A lot of the people that want this want a secure and free extension of their BlackBerry."If it's a security feature, why is RIM adding those applications later this year? It is a security feature, but it would appear that the company is making this argument only because it was unable to put the PlayBook's security features for email on par with those of the BlackBerry smartphones.

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First off, we aren't at recess and this isn't fourth grade. Real companies need to know whether or not they should spend their very real IT budgets on the PlayBook. Did Balsillie expect reviewers to ignore the PlayBook's obvious faults and recommend it anyway? If so, it shows us how much Kool-Aid drinking is going on up there in Waterloo. Also, how exactly is the $500 PlayBook a "free extension" of a BlackBerry? I don't see anything remotely "free" about it at all.

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie And NBA's Dwight Howard

Balsillie insisted that the PlayBook's design is secure. "I talk to CIOs every day, and they're sweating this issue. You hear a lot of this phrase … 'consumerization of the enterprise,' but in fact, I'm not really seeing that. I'm seeing it as a paradox. They say 'I want consumer, innovative stuff, but I need it to [have] enterprise-grade standards of security, reliability, manageability, and scalability.' I think our focus is resolving that paradox, not denying one half of it."

The problem is that any IT organization that doesn't already use BlackBerrys is out of luck. No BlackBerry means no email on the PlayBook, unless you count Yahoo Mail via the PlayBook's browser.

This speaks to RIM's larger problem--it is losing ground in the smartphone market to Google and Apple. Consumers aren't the only ones jumping on the iPhone and Android--businesses are, too. RIM should be doing everything possible to persuade BlackBerry defectors to come back. Instead, the PlayBook is really being targeted at the BlackBerry faithful. RIM is banking on the support from its hardcore enterprise customers who already are deeply immersed in RIM's smartphones and servers. That's fine, but RIM isn't going to win back its old customers that way. In short, the PlayBook isn't going to help RIM expand its customer base, at least, not in its current configuration. Last I checked, you can't grow a company without winning new customers.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis

But RIM says updates with new features are on the way, and they will solve all the PlayBook's shortcomings. "We'll have an over-the-air email client to announce very, very soon," said Balsillie. "We have BlackBerry World--our user conference--in a couple weeks. Stay tuned for all [the] capabilities we have coming out on this stuff."

Herein lies the PlayBooks' other big problem: It isn't ready.

RIM spokesman Shelly Sofer told me as much at RIM's event in New York City on Thursday night. He admitted that the software hasn't been finalized, and that's why there's no email client--even for POP3/IMAP4 email--on the PlayBook. RIM must be under enormous pressure (from shareholders, customers, whomever) to push the product out the door when so few of the features are fully prepared. Despite the fact that the PlayBook will eventually gain new features over time, you can't sell customers on that promise. Look how that strategy has failed Microsoft. Microsoft shipped Windows Phone 7 last October and promised new features by January or February. Guess what happened? Microsoft ran into problems, and the update has yet to reach the majority of WP7 users. Put another way, would you buy a 3-D television that didn't ship with 3-D, but instead was going to be provided with 3-D months later? No, you wouldn't.

RIM, however, apparently believes that you would.

Stunningly, RIM product manager Ryan Bidan and other RIM spokespeople told InformationWeek's Fritz Nelson that the company was pleased, in general, with the early reviews. Instead of cringing at the negative stuff--which they sort of expected--the company was happy about the compliments given to the PlayBook's user interface and speediness.

As Lazaridis entered the room last night, he said the PlayBook is "my baby. I feel like we've given birth or something." Like any proud parent, he spent a good part of the evening showing off the PlayBook to attendees.

The PlayBook goes on sale April 19 for the starting price of $500. It will initially only be available with Wi-Fi. Variants of the PlayBook with 3G and 4G won't arrive until summer.