Sprint drops BlackBerry PlayBook
Though it hasn’t come to fruition, the PlayBook has been dropped from the Sprint lineup. The tablet from RIM, was supposed to be coming to Sprint’s 4G network this summer, but numerous delays from RIM as well as minimal interest in the tablet have prompted Sprint to drop their plans to carry a 4G PlayBook and move on with Android tablets. This is a big blow to RIM, as its tablet hasn’t sold well to date.
The marketing team from Sprint stated “It’s an interesting concept, it just hasn’t caught on with business customers as much as they would like…..There are so many tablets in the market, it creates confusion for the average customer.”
There isn’t a positive spin that can be put on this announcement. I really can’t blame Sprint for dropping the PlayBook. Nobody in their right mind would own one that doesn’t have a BlackBerry smartphone, and if you have a BlackBerry smartphone, you can just tether the tablet with BlackBerry Bridge and save an extra $30 per month. At this point, I’m starting to feel bad for the company. But, what can you expect when you launch a tablet that doesn’t have an email client, a decent selection of apps, and when the company is basically ditching its own app store to put Android on the QNX tablet?
[WSJ]
