Former RIM employee talks about the PlayBook’s challenges

Like Steve Jobs, a former RIM employee shares his opinion about the PlayBook facing tough challenges ahead. Raymond Reddy was recently interviewed by Business Insider and gave his thoughts on RIM’s upcoming QNX tablet. According to the report, his main concerns about the device are its timing, developer support and its reliance on BlackBerry phones. The tablet is rumored to be delayed due to RIM having troubles with porting and tweaking the QNX tablet onto the device and the lack of apps at launch will be another problem the tablet it will face. Granted, those two issues are real, but like all operating systems used on tablets, they take awhile to blossom (i.e. Android’s tablet version Honeycomb is only coming this year, and Android 2.2 tablets have been around for awhile). The lack of apps just needs time to be solved, apps will flood the app stores eventually – all RIM needs to do is offer incentives for developers to hop over to their platform and they’re set. As for the tablet’s reliance on BlackBerry phones, it is an issue that RIM is totally in their hands. Having the ability to sync with a BlackBerry is great as an option, but making the tablet reliant will seriously limit its potential in both usage and sales. After all, not all BlackBerry users would want to get this tablet, and consumers who don’t own BlackBerry phones see this as a reason not to get the tablet. However, as to the tablet being dead on arrival, it’s hard to say – after all, if the tablet proves that it can stand its ground against its competition, it certainly has a fighting chance. It sure sounds like somebody is unhappy about his ex-company. A bad case of bitterness or an insightful prediction? We’ll see when the device launches this year.

Update: The original article was titled BlackBerry PlayBook is “Dead on arrival” says former RIM executive because we were commenting on the quote reported by Business Insider (notice the URL?). It turns out that there was some miscommunication and the article they wrote has been updated. Here is a quote from Business Insider about the updated article:

Update and correction: an earlier version of this story cited Reddy as a former executive at RIM. He wasn’t–he was an employee in corporate development and M&A. It also implied that he said the Playbook would flop. In fact, he made no prediction about its success or failure, but only pointed out these problems. Sorry for the errors.

Well just because he wasn’t a big shot in the company doesn’t make his statements less valid. Either way, the points listed are solid arguments against the PlayBook’s success, but then again they are just one person’s opinions on the device – opinions don’t equate to facts, statistics or hands-on reviews with the devices. Let’s just wait patiently for the PlayBook to hit the stores before we jump to any conclusions.