RIM refutes analyst’s BlackBerry PlayBook battery, delay claims

By on Dec 30, 2010 at 7:37 AM
Tablets December 30, 2010

Earlier this week, Kaufman Brothers analyst, Shaw Wu, made waves when he asserted that Research In Motion’s highly anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook tablet could be delayed due to “battery issues.” Mr. Wu’s exact statement was as follows: “RIM needs to improve its relatively poor battery life of a few hours compared to 6 hours for the Samsung Galaxy Tab and 10 hours for [Apple's] iPad.” Today, RIM has fired back with a concrete statement of its own, claiming that the PlayBook battery issues Wu reports are nonexistent.

Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented. RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life.

There you have it. We would love for RIM to be a bit more forthcoming as to when — approximately — the device will be released, but we’ll just have to take this statement for now.

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , , , ,
40 Comments

Related Articles

  • Donny

    Too bad no one is developing for it.

    • WBJ

      The developers definitely need to focus on a bFart app.

    • Informed

      whats to be developed? Who needs apps when you’ve got the ability to render any web page on the planet?

    • Anonymous

      You think that with RIM giving away free playbooks to anyone who has an app approved pre-release, nobody is developing for it? Funny.

    • uCosom

      If you’re trying to be funny…. don’t quit your day job.

      If you were trying to be informative and provide accurate information, well…. try again.

      If you were trying to look like an arse….. congratulations!!

    • John Peters

      Why are people so mad that RIM is actually letting the consumer do what they want to do with their tablet? You want HD, you got it. You want multitasking, you got it. You want fast web browsing, you got it. You want Flash, you got it. Yes, the battery will suffer if you use everything but at least it’s the consumer’s choice. If you want to preserve your battery, then don’t watch Flash videos, don’t multitask, etc. Why is this so hard to understand?

  • http://twitter.com/j_nathaniel Jason

    They have a long way to go before I even start to get interested.

    • Anonymous

      Jason, is this some new form of demonstrating supreme disinterest? Posting in response to a routine corporate refutation, issued in response to an entirely unsubstantiated and unsourced analyst’s rumor (designed mostly to draw attention to the firm, likely), about a product that is still months from release. You would expect, given the specs, that battery-life would be a work-in-progress and a concern, but the way the rumor was picked up and trumpeted in tech blogs all over the place does not reflect well on the ethics and quality of this sub-genre of blogging (BGR excepted).

      • Anonymous

        Don’t except BGR from that accusation — they were among the very first to publish the original unsubstantiated and unsourced analyst’s rumor.

  • Tomm

    You tell em RIM!

  • Anonymous

    I clicked on “more”, but there is no more. Tease.

    • sirpaul

      There’s the comments.

  • Rickg13

    Comparable to what? The ipad, the galaxy tab, my electric toothbrush??

  • FJ

    translation: we do have battery issues but will be fixed by the final model, which will have a 5-7 hour battery life

    • Informed

      they’ve just been focusing on the raw product. They want to get that working right, then they’ll turn on the 2nd half of the dual-core and secondary processing apps like power management….

  • Anonymous

    What bunch of fucking lies by RIM!!! they pride themselves on battery life and then to come out and say “battery life management had not yet been implemented” is a bunch of bullshit…

    Dear RIM, please end the suffering and just die already… You are no longer relevant, loved or respected. You are a joke, as is your stupid, arrogant, closeted, fat & ugly CEO Jim Ballsilly…

    • Mark Texas

      Hate much lately? Why don’t for 2011 you move on with your lie and enjoy whatever tech that gets you off??

      Let the market decide if RIM is valid still or not. We can all return this time next year review sales of their products.

      • Anonymous

        Honestly at the end of next year it will be much of the same:

        1. Apple making everyone else play catch up (again)
        2. Every Apple hater complaining that all 100 Apple customers own 1,000,000 devices each.
        3. With the first six months of 2012 Company X will have a product that crushes the original iPad.

        It is the same thing every year. Last year it was how Android would soon pass iOS in market share. 100+ devices later we are still waiting on this. On that note, how the hell do you have your OS on 10X’s as many devices and not hold the largest market share? How Google screws that up I will never know. Nokia will have another big comeback, just like in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (all years that they lost market share, mind share and saw their revenues hit).

        It is the same thing every year. Apple grows by 50% and earn truck loads of money. Everyone else tries to emulate Apple’s success to know avail. We can all be the fanboys and fangirls of whatever products we like but I don’t think any rational person can argue that there is no company anywhere that is close to Apple as far as success goes in this last ten years.

      • Len

        Next year will be the same:

        1. BlackBerrys will continue to sell
        2. Investors will continue to be bearish on RIMM stock even though they exceed financial expectations every quarter.
        3. People will continue to predict that RIM is dead (how long have they been saying that now? I can’t keep track)

        If anything, RIM has been proving more people wrong than Apple.

      • Ignatz Krebz

        What is you affiliation with Apple? Are you their official PR person for this website? You make a similar post after EVERY article even remotely related to Apple, as if you feel the need to defend their position 24/7. Are you just a rabid fan or is this a job of yours?

    • RealDeal

      I also judge and buy products based on the physical attractiveness of the CEO producing said products. Nice to know I am not alone in this practice.

    • GetALife

      Ah, yes. The parade of ignorant opinions continues. Your high tech whoopee cushion with a retina screen is calling.

  • Ghostnyc

    For all of RIM’s shortcomings and justified criticisms- Battery life, power management has rarely if ever been a issue for them. This is a basic trash talking before CES.

    • Anonymous

      It’s never been an issue on their in-house developed OS. . .QNX is a different animal altogether.

      Seriously, does anyone actually believe that you can have “true” multitasking with 1080p video playing in the background (a useless feature if I ever knew one) without a severe battery penalty? What am I missing here?

      • zukidrvr

        QNX Neutrino RTOS is used on the Mars Rovers and the International Space Station – two places where power management is paramount. I think they know exactly what they are doing.

        As for capabilities: finally there is a tablet that has plenty of capability, whether your applications need it or not. Isn’t that what everyone has been screaming for in handsets? Brighter, sharper screens; faster processors; Open GL 2D and 3D; and open source operating system with an excellent track record, and good battery life. Looks like RIM will deliver a product into a market where competitors have just barely hit the target, with a product that surpasses it and raises the bar. If you only focus on the consumer market for this device, you are missing the corporate market which is huge. A BlackBerry PlayBook on every desk and a BlackBerry smartphone in every pocket? Not a bad goal. The consumer market is just the frosting on the cake.

      • Oh Mr. Yes

        a useless feature that everyone seem to want.

        you want “true multitasking” … but if the video it running in the back then forget it. I agree with you a video running in the background will affect the battery life. Everyone however should keep in mind the following things when it comes to battery life statements:

        300 whatever hours on standby = fully charged, completely cycled battery, with all wireless radios off, screen brightness at its lowest, and a bare system aka only core applications. Until the battery dies.

        12 hours of talk time = fully charged, completely cycled battery, ONE(yes singular, lone, sole etc..) phone call to a phone left on until the battery dies.

        14 hrs video playback = fully charged, completely cycled battery, with all wireless radios off, screen brightness at its lowest, a bare system aka only core applications. ONE VIDEO at its purest form (meaning the least, if any, software decompression is needed, thus less pull on the system) playing in continuum (repeat infinitely) again Until the battery dies.

        14 hrs SONG playback = fully charged, completely cycled battery, with all wireless radios off, screen brightness at its lowest, a bare system aka only core applications. ONE SONG at its purest form (meaning the least, if any, software decompression is needed, thus less pull on the system) playing in continuum (repeat infinitely) again Until the battery dies.

        the only time i see and respect battery time is when they specify the usage (which is verrry rare these days) BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW based on our individual experiences no device has ever lived up to the standards as we use the device in various ways; ie: heavy use, light use, internet alot, song etc…

  • Anonymous

    Just like everyone else I want to know two things:

    1. When are you going to ship it
    2. How much will it cost.

    Quit stalling RIM, No one waiting for the iPad2 is going to buy a PlayBook, not even businesses. So get on to gettin’ on already.

    • smooter

      @TheNewReign

      Seriously, could you be ANY more of a rabid Apple fan? Simmer down a bit!

      On another note: Everyone pooh poohed the Galaxy Tab (including me, and honestly I still don’t get it but…) and they managed to sell a million of them in just two months! Now granted, the MaxiPad sold two million in the same timeframe, but you have to take into account the fact that the MaxiPad was the only player in the space at the time. The Galaxy Tab managed to sell a million in two months WHILE Apple was selling a million iPads a month!!!!

      My point is: If Samsung can sell 600,000 Galaxy Tabs a month WHILE Apple sells a million MaxiPads a month….there is room for RIM to sell 300,000 Playbooks a month as well. Those businesses that have refused to let go of Blackberry are going to snatch up Playbooks in droves! That will mean a bunch of business folks taking them home and impressing the crap out of their kids (that may or may not be using a competing tablet device) and the snowball will keep rolling.

      There is room for more than Apple in the space….and if history has anything to say about it….long term Apple will be the smallest player in the space eventually.

      Just facts!

      Oh, and by the way….the Android market share thing….stand by, cause it WILL happen!

      smooter

  • http://twitter.com/cefranco2 Carlos Franco

    I ilke how they used the word “comparable”. My guess, they’ll advertise 6hrs but it’ll only really get 4hrs on moderate use.

    • DTownTony

      These companies are pretty tricky with their wording. Some even call there devices “phones” but you can barely make a call on them.

  • http://twitter.com/rtorcato Richard Torcato

    over promise under deliver. They had no choice but to show an unfinished product to please investors. The big problem is that Rim’s labs are chasing Apple while Apple’s labs have been working on the next big thing.

    • DTownTony

      like a thinner bezel and flat back? ooooooooooooh

  • Fashosbest

    Fail! Just stop already, it’s not gon slow iPad’s momentum nor make them any great deal of money but o well. They need to worry about their phones

  • uCosom

    If all of you Apple Fanboys think RIM is dead, then what do you have to worry about? You don’t think Apple is looking over their shoulder? Think again! Pretty soon, they’ll be looking at RIM’s posterior… a much better position to be in if you’re going to have to kiss it.

  • http://twitter.com/alexistechblog Marc Corredera

    This Statement seems to, not directly, confirm the analyst conclusion to the delay of the Tablet. If you don’t get the perfect formula to provide the best performance of the product, it’s fine to delay the releasing date. In fact Nokia is not ready to offer the E7, and personally, i prefer to get a product latter, than a earlier one with lots of bugs and troubleshooting. We will stay patience, and have a look to the PlayBook final release announcement.

  • Anonymous

    The lack of specifics in the response should be a red flag. You know very well that if it was getting 6+ hours in the current iteration, they’d be crowing about how it’s better than or as good as the Tab.

    • http://twitter.com/cefranco2 Carlos Franco

      I agree. My red flag was when they wouldnt let anyone touch the thing.

  • vas

    At least they could make the alarm clock work. LOLL once again apple can t even get a simple app right

  • Jim

    RIM basically just admitted the pre-beta version’s battery life as criticized. Their only response is power management, which cuts performance. And their bottom line is superior performance with, you guessed it, comparably quick-drained battery. Their attorneys must’ve written this. Hopefully they do more than power management/compromised performance. Hopefully they invest in better battery technology and teams to rework QNX, but this will jump the price to 600+ maybe?

  • Anonymous

    Well -after months of use, it still feels like we all are using 700$ Pre-Beta Units…. 

    My Playbook drains battery almost twice as fast as my iPad2 for same task… (watching AVI movie and MP3)

    With the iPad2 I can rely on its power for a full long working day with note taking, whilst my Playbook ends hours before my day… The iPad2 even have a much more pleasant and brighter screen.
    Sorry RIM, please hurry up with ALL fixes… and whatever you want to give us “pre-beta” users as compensation

blog comments powered by Disqus