BlackBerry maker
Research in Motion's (RIM) PlayBook, priced at about Rs 32,000 (depending on the version you buy), will be launched in India on June 22.
The long-awaited response to Apple's iPad, PlayBook
went on sale in the United States and Canada on April 19, in a launch the company desperately hoped could win the hearts and minds of consumers.
The stakes could not be higher for the Canadian company, whose BlackBerry smartphone once reigned supreme but has struggled to compete since Apple's iPhone and a slew of devices running Google's Android entered the fray.
The launch has not been helped by reviews, which have panned the WiFi-only tablet computer for lacking RIM's trademark email and organizer applications.
Check out the must-have tablets of 2011 But analysts say RIM's Playbook should stay in the hunt, even if it gets off to a slow start, as it overhauls its creaky platform with the QNX operating system it acquired last year.
Gartner, a research outfit focused on technology, estimates one in 10 touchscreen devices sold in 2015, or some 30 million, will be powered by QNX, which will likely also find its way onto its smartphones in the next 12 months.
That would place it third behind Apple, at almost half the market, and Android at just under 40 per cent.
Gagdets that made news at the consumer electronics show 2011 RIM made its name among a white-collar crowd when mobile email was a novelty and has been slow to broaden its appeal.
And in its current setup, the PlayBook's prime audiences are the 60 million-odd active BlackBerry users worldwide and corporate IT managers who appreciate the reliance on a BlackBerry for access to corporate data. RIM expects large businesses to buy shipments in "the tens of thousands."
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