Wow this is a bit naive and egotistical. I HATE the new google reader but to think that it takes ONE man outside of Google to fix their product is downright silly. The redesign was made in the context of Google's near-future plans to ignore that is ridiculous. A more constructive move is to provide a short checklist of things to re-consider or build/recommend a competing product. Its not like Google cant improve it more soon to find a good middle-ground.
> to think that it takes ONE man outside of Google to fix their product is downright silly.
He spent 5 years at Google, including being the lead designer on the Google Reader project. It's not like he's some schmuck out of nowhere, and I don't think he asked to be a one-man team.
I think the point is that (apparently) no one at google is paying attention to how the new features integrate with the actual experience of using the Reader. He can fix that, at least.
Figure it this way: instead of Kevin Fox being pretentious, he's making a public statement. Could he have sent Google a professional email? Yes (and I suspect he did, actually). More importantly, he is making a public statement as an ex-Googler, and thus as an authority on Google engineering, that sympathizes with the negative feedback from the user base. If the users are not sending a powerful enough message, here is an ex-employee (who left on good terms, as far as we know, and was very good at what he did) giving a personal declaration to the company. That it is public shows his confidence, and that he feels (correctly) that many are dissatisfied with the recent change. And from the perspective of a large company like Google, this is not just some uninformed group griping for no reason, this is a real issue. Kevin Fox isn't attempting to be arrogant, he's giving legitimacy to an issue that may otherwise be overlooked in a classic case of a large company missing the demands of its user base.
How do you figure? The same basic hardware is remanifesting as the Kindle Fire, so that's not where RIM screwed up.
When I talked to non-tech types about the Playbook, one of the common themes was "it's a Blackberry without email? That's stupid."
I mean, to the average consumer Blackberry is largely synonymous with email and BBM. What made the move particularly bizaro is that RIM tried to sell this anti-feature as a corporate security thing... for a device whose primary appeal was to end consumers.
Either way, it was a stupid waste of the Blackberry brand.
From RIM's marketing and positioning, Playbook was a companion device for the Blackberry and aimed squarely at the iPad. So in that POV, the playbook was for the people who already had email and bbm.
I think the high developer friction (poor tools, poor stores, etc.) and the wrong direction were among the bigger problems.
>So in that POV, the playbook was for the people who already had email and bbm.
I don't know a single person that uses a tablet that doesn't use it for email.
>I think the high developer friction (poor tools, poor stores, etc.) and the wrong direction were among the bigger problems.
You're looking at it from a technical perspective, and the Playbook's failure was a complete lack of demand from consumers. When the people that actually buy tablets react to your marketing strategy with "that's stupid" and in turn refuse to buy your device, it doesn't matter if you have the best developer tools in the world; you've still set yourself up for failure.
>So in that POV, the playbook was for the people who already had email and bbm.
>I don't know a single person that uses a tablet that doesn't use it for email.
Didn't say it CANNOT do email. webmail and email apps were welcome, and i didn't say that it wasnt a mistake (it was) but i think RIM went for an MVP (BB style email must've had a big time-to-market cost) to get to market faster.
>I think the high developer friction (poor tools, poor stores, etc.) and the wrong direction were among the bigger problems.
>You're looking at it from a technical perspective, and the Playbook's failure was a complete lack of demand from consumers. When the people that actually buy tablets react to your marketing strategy with "that's stupid" and in turn refuse to buy your device, it doesn't matter if you have the best developer tools in the world; you've still set yourself up for failure.
We are on the same page (hence the "direction") part. Playbook was a misguided attempt, instead of zagging. it wen t and battled with iPad squarely without the 10x improvement or any unfair advantage.
In summation, i think the rank of problem of RIM's tablet strategy are: 1st: Wrong angle of attack, 2nd: platform friction , (close)3rd: key features weren't in the MVP.
Consider that the Blackberry tablets are a completely different OS than Blackberry phones. Not having email on a BB is just another example of RIM making RIM-like-decisions
>Consider that the Blackberry tablets are a completely different OS than Blackberry phones.
At the moment. QNX will eventually be on the phones as well, but RIM is dragging their feet about getting it there.
Another common theme from the Blackberry fanatics I know is that they're all at the very least waiting for QNX phones before they get another Blackberry, and most of them have just given up and switched to iOS or Android at this point.
It seems puzzling to me that you would count QNX against the Playbook when you take that into consideration.
I remembered how the Courier appealed to me more than the iPad when i saw that video. The moleskin form factor is also a big plus over iPad since it was less fragile and more compact (perfect for traveling).
I don't understand why they couldn't pursue both, similar to the iPad & Macbook-pro dynamic.
What we have here is a full blown disruption from the iOS platform, Android smartphones and Facebook games. Nintendo's customers gained with Wii and DS didn't stick around.
Sony should be next to fall with their Vita platform which learned nothing from the current disruptors.
Microsoft has sidestepped this disruption with Kinect + foregoing a mobile gaming device and just turn WP7 into a gaming platform (in 2012)
just spent 2 weeks developing an MVP app for a photo sharing startup. passed to the store last night. :) Dev tools are smooth but the biggest issue is the lack of mature open source libraries (Oauth was buggy and i cant find a Tumblr, Blogger cross posting lib)
