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Comment by cal5k | Hacker News Reader

Every comment here seems to be piling on RIM. The skepticism is painfully forced, really.

I haven't been a fan of RIM's products as of late, but I think the PlayBook is actually the only credible competitor to the iPad 2 right now. The pricing is right, it excels in a couple of areas that the iPad 2 does not (particularly, enterprise security), it matches or exceeds almost all of the hardware specs (including battery life, apparently), and it is very clearly targeted at the enterprise market. Plus, the OS isn't a clunky piece of crap like the versions on their current phones.

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" The pricing is right"

Sure. When they ship it might be different.

" it excels in a couple of areas that the iPad 2 does not "

Sure. When they ship it might be different.

"it matches or exceeds almost all of the hardware specs"

Sure. When they ship it might be different.

"including battery life, apparently"

Oh, so you've tried one? No? Perhaps because they're not for sale yet? The skepticism may be forced, but isn't your enthusiasm a little premature?

Does each generation need to relearn the lesson that the value of vapourware = 0?

This stuff is shipping April 19th... I highly doubt that, in the less than one month between now and when it ships, the pricing will go up, the enterprise security features will break, the hardware will somehow magically degrade, and the battery life will be 1 hour, instead of the 10 advertised.

Also, what constitutes enthusiasm in your view? A factual argument as to why the product might actually be successful?

Finally, how is this product vapourware? It's in the wild - people have touched it, played with it, tested it, built apps for it. I actually have tried one in Waterloo, thank you very much.

And yet somehow they've magically managed to chop and change just about everything else, and massively delay from when they first said it would be available...

"A factual argument as to why the product might actually be successful?"

Until you get your hands on one, it's not 'factual' it is 'conjecture', or 'speculation'.

"Finally, how is this product vapourware?"

Something that is changed so much, and delayed so often is a good candidate. But these days, and especially with the appalling record of recent tablet announcements and then failure to deliver/materialise, pretty much any tablet should be regarded as vapourware right up until it appears in your hot little hands.

But that's okay, you complain about my scepticism and I'll complain about your gullibility and then we'll all be happy. :D

"This stuff is shipping April 19th... I actually have tried one in Waterloo"

Well, that's good news for RIM.

Opinions may change when they ship.

To be fair, the pile-on of cynicism was a mile deep when the iPad was originally announced. Where are the feminine hygiene product jokes now, hmmmmmmm? ;-)

The cynicism about the iPad is still valid. There's some revisionist history amongst "i told you so"ers that paint pre-launch iPad cynicism as being about it's success.

The actual pre-launch cynicism was "this is just a big ipod". The reason for the the cynicism is because there was a geniune belief that the ipad was going to be something breathtakingly different, something akin to the original iphone (or the courier). I remember the coverage in the months leading up to it, and people were predicting off the wall things that didn't turn out. I remember one prediction that the ipad was going to be just screen that is powered (wirelessly) by your iphone, for example.

The cynicism was "this is all?". It's still valid today. There are many people who have written about how their ipads are collecting dust. There's a novelty to it that wears off, to some degree (to some people, certainly not every one, I still use mine fairly often).

But what I don't remember is "this thing isn't going to sell".

I distinctly remember "this thing isn't going to sell".

Canadian competitors to american produce aren't always appreciated (think Justin Bieber, etc.) ;)

We like to send them crap we don't want ;-)

Jokes aside, that's not really the issue... every American I've ever asked didn't know that RIM was Canadian. Hell, they had no problem when their president was seen everywhere with a BlackBerry.

The people you asked aren't the skeptics. I'm sure almost everyone that commented here is aware that RIM is Canadian. (It's HN after all...) But yeah I get your point.

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