Blackberry Playbook at launch monday

It’s becoming clear: the iPad is (or at the very least will be) considered a revolution in media consumption and creation. Between the device being a life jacket for the literary and publishing industries, to it’s effortless ability to make the laptop seem cumbersome and expensive, the iPad has plans to revolutionize the way we think about screen time, and to be frank, may already have.

But that wasn’t always the publicly shared opinion. Upon its arrival, leading edge thinkers initially met the iPad with skepticism, due to its very presence seeming redundant and unnecessary. But within months those concerns quelled to a pitter and only the most stubborn were able to deny its appeal. It is predicted that the iPad will sell upwards of 21 Million by 2011. Backlash not withstanding, the brand is doing something right.

But if you’re a rival brand, say Blackberry for instance, you may not be doing anything wrong, per se, just that someone else is doing it better.

Research In Motion, the maker of The Blackberry is launching a response to the iPad early next year. Monday it was revealed that the brands own tablet device, dubbed the “PlayBook” will feature many of the same features as the iPad, (different operating system, has a seven-inch touch screen, portable) and even some that it doesn’t (both front- and back-facing HD cameras). The big difference is that it’s just not . . . well, “cool”. It just isn’t.

And as long as the Blackberry has been around, “cool” was not a concern of RIM. Early reports indicate that it may be different now.

The base audience for RIM’s Blackberry product has always been the corporate consumer. The Blackberry stands as the go-to device for business email service (a secondary function behind phone usage) within the corporate business world. “Corporate Business World” doesn’t exactly scream “cool”. Apple managed to make a lifestyle out of the iPad. A lifestyle of "cool". If RIM follows Apple's lead, the PlayBook will project the lifestyle of . . . "work"?

Yikes.

Weather they’ll be able to be viewed as anything other than that remains to be seen.

Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/bm7L8q