Tablet War: Rim’s Playbook Versus Apple’s Ipad

1. First of all, the PlayBook’s primary customers were users of Blackberry’s operation system. Second, Blackberry OS was best suited for business people and professionals, thus the primary users were corporate clients. The primary market target of IPad was a regular average consumer, which in terms of market share comprises a significantly larger percentage as opposed to business segment. Apple focused on both users who were familiar with IPhone operational system and new users. IPad had more entertainment features and applications rather than the ones designed for business needs. As a result, a much larger customer base consisted of average people.

2. In my opinion, both devices provided adequate value to their customers of different market segments. PlayBook provided great features for their corporate customers, such as multitasking, videoconferencing, and faster processing speed. In their turn, IPad provided features for their average public, including a greater amount of applications and entertainment. Personally, I prefer PlayBook over IPad because it meets my business needs. PlayBook offers enhanced security features and ability to sync with BlackBerry phone used at work.

3. The most important factors to price PlayBook lower than IPad were: * The amount of available applications at a time and compatibility to sync with smartphone applications. IPad had 20 times more applications then PlayBook * The amount of available distributors. PlayBook was available in more than 20,000 locations, whereas IPad was only available at the selected distributors. * Inability to deliver a better product than their competitors created a need to sell at lower cost in order to sustain a value proposition. It is a very common marketing strategy used in creating competitive advantage when a competitor delivers a more superior product. However, lower price didn’t necessarily mean that consumers would choose PlayBook over IPad. The choice depended on consumers’ needs, wants, and performance of the product.

4. RIM opted for a low-key launch because when PlayBook was introduced, they were no longer the first movers but rather the followers. Moreover, the product itself had significant disadvantages compared to the Apple’s product, such as the number of available applications and the ability to optimize smartphone apps. I think the chosen strategy was appropriate, because at that point they could benefit more from being the followers since the first mover advantage was lost. Thus, since the product positioning was already relatively established, the costly big buzz would have not effected the situation.