I’ve held my tongue a lot over the upcoming Playbook - partially because I know a lot of people at RIM, I respect them, I respect what they do, and (yeah, you got me…)  they’re Canadian and I want to support them.

I was disappointed by the delay with launching. I mean, seriously, the gang at Apple are not *that* brilliant are they? Can they seriously launch iPad mark 2 before RIM even gets one out of the gate? RIM pre-announced the Playbook ages ago… obviously to try to build some excitement that they would eventually launch a tablet.  

But where the heck has it been? Why so long? The corporate claim that they pre-announced it to help corporate customers to build playbooks into their budgets?? HOW DUMB DO WE LOOK?!

No-one. Not a single corporate IT guy turned to his their CIO boss and said “Hey, how many of those un-seen, un-tested, un-demanded by the sales team Playbooks do you want to budget for whenever they come out?”

That’s not the way it works. You build something cool, I get excited. I tell my IT guys I want it. They say “No. it’s not secure and we didn’t budget for it and we haven’t tested it and it’s a toy” until a year or so passes and then they relent. I’m no CIO, but I’m pretty sure THAT’S HOW CORPORATIONS BUDGET FOR NEW TYPES OF EQUIPMENT. 

That’s why the iPads will accelerate in sales this year…. but back to the RIM Playbook. 

Ok - so the specs look “fine”. It’s smaller - i dunno about that. Thinner would be cooler - but not having a smaller screen size… when it comes to screen-sizes, well, they’re kinda like cars and horsepower. I might not need more when I’m driving to work most days, but it feels good to have it. If I wanted an iPad with a smaller screen size, I’d buy an iPhone.

Wait - the new RIM Playbook doesn’t have 3G or 4G? Check that - If I wanted a WiFi iPad with a smaller screen size, I’d buy an iPod Touch… ouch, that hurts to say out loud!

But seriously, no 3G? Tethering through my RIM Blackberry? Ugh. Ok. Not *as* cool. Let me carry a cable, or mess around with Bluetooth. Sigh.

I still say that the reason my wife and I bought our house was because I received a link to a house listing while we were driving around one day. I clicked the link, it opened in google maps (streetview), we liked what we saw and we swung by the place and fell in love, put in an offer a couple of days later—before we’d really figured out what the heck was going on!  My iPad with 3G coverage re-defined the concept of “an impulse buy”.  

So - what else you got RIM? Oh, secure email? Yeah- guess what? That ship has sailed. Email is NOT secure. Very rarely do I send anything that I can’t afford to have show up in a newspaper the next day. 

Wait? You’re planning a big launch? Cool. Will Charlie Sheen be there? What’s that? You’re launching through Sears Canada? You’re kidding right? Now you’re just screwing with me…

The gang over at Tablet Planet had this great article to get me started today:

Canada Born RIM Launching 7-inch BlackBerry Tablet In Own Backyard On April 10th? | Tablets Planet