Tablets will be dead in 5 years: Blackberry CEO....

The tablet computer has no future, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins told Bloomberg in an interview.
“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” Heins said in an interview in Los Angeles Monday. “Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

His comments are the strongest indication yet that BlackBerry may be planning to abandon its tablet computer line, less than two years after the company's PlayBook debuted to less than stellar reviews.

BlackBerry took a $485 million write-down in 2011 after the PlayBook was panned by critics for lacking a built-in email feature, among other issues.

“In five years, I see BlackBerry to be the absolute leader in mobile computing -- that’s what we’re aiming for,” Heins told Bloomberg. “I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat.”

(please don't shoot the messenger....)
Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry CEO: Tablet Will Be Dead In 5 Years
 
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Pretty bold statements. I don't think tablets will replace a notebook/ultra book form factor in the near future. But, I don't think they're going to "die" either. Tablets are very useful in many situations/environments.
 

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Blackberry will be dead in 3 years

Very possibly

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,”

Probably. They are not likely to disappear completely - but some other form factor will be the next big thing.
 

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Blackberry will be dead in 3 years

Very possibly

Not just possibly. They will die. Their largest customer base are abandoning ship en masse. The US government used to be RIM's biggest customer. It jumped ship a couple months ago and converted to iphone and android. Commercial entities are also leaving. My brother's company, for example, is one of the largest insurance companies in the Midwest. It jumped ship from the blackberry late last year.

The blackberry is an evolutionary dead end.
 

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Simply not true.

I just checked. You are right. There was a report stating that federal agencies are switching to android and iPhone. I caught that report. There was another one that came out a month later that the last report was in error. Agencies are including multiple platforms, including the iPhone, android, and blackberry. That report I missed.

regardless, companies are dropping blackberry by the masses. Their market share is decreasing rapidly. I know of no private blackberry owner that's happy with their phone.
 

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Blackberry will be dead in 3 years

Very possibly

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,”

Probably. They are not likely to disappear completely - but some other form factor will be the next big thing.

Hybrids maybe? The ones you can actually use like a laptop/netbook/notebook, whatever. The clamshell designs where you can detach the tablet from the keyboard appeal to me more than something like the Surface with its floppy keyboard.
 

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Says the CEO of a company that is the very definition of irrelevance who also believes that the iphone or android didn't affect Blackberry.... :rolleyes:

More likely, Blackberry will be dead in five years, or at least bought out by someone.
 

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The saddest part of that is that BlackBerry actually put out a really nice tablet. The Playbook has one of the nicest and smoothest UIs around. I owned one for a year. Sadly they really killed it off themselves through an almost criminal lack of support.
 

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The saddest part of that is that BlackBerry actually put out a really nice tablet. The Playbook has one of the nicest and smoothest UIs around. I owned one for a year. Sadly they really killed it off themselves through an almost criminal lack of support.

In the grand scheme of things, you don't count. These companies always look at the really big numbers. And the numbers simply told them that there weren't enough of you playbook owners for them to put proper financial and manpower resources into post-sale support.

For example, I currently use the hp envy x2. There was a bug that gave you double letters after a space if you type really really fast. So, the bug gwould do that in every other sentence. HP came out with a bios upgrade that fixed that. Their employees from the beginning actively posted on various forums and answered people's questions individually.

While I have not owned any RIM's devices, I know several people who do, and according to them there's nothing but silence from this company. No upgrades. No support. Nothing.
 

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The saddest part of that is that BlackBerry actually put out a really nice tablet. The Playbook has one of the nicest and smoothest UIs around. I owned one for a year. Sadly they really killed it off themselves through an almost criminal lack of support.

In the grand scheme of things, you don't count. These companies always look at the really big numbers. And the numbers simply told them that there weren't enough of you playbook owners for them to put proper financial and manpower resources into post-sale support.

For example, I currently use the hp envy x2. There was a bug that gave you double letters after a space if you type really really fast. So, the bug gwould do that in every other sentence. HP came out with a bios upgrade that fixed that. Their employees from the beginning actively posted on various forums and answered people's questions individually.

While I have not owned any RIM's devices, I know several people who do, and according to them there's nothing but silence from this company. No upgrades. No support. Nothing.

Pretty much true. I held on for a while because I enjoyed the UI so much and I could see such potential, but eventually I got fed up with it. I sold it and got a Nexus 7. That's a great tablet with excellent content/apps/support, however I think Android is clumsy at times.
 

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Dead in five years? Hmm. That has got to be the dumbest statement I've ever heard. They may decline in sale a little due to more advanced smart phones, but die?! Not a cold chance in Hades.
 

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Perhaps a huge asteroid will hit the earth in 5 years. If anyone is left, we can go back to stone tablets... :)
 

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Perhaps a huge asteroid will hit the earth in 5 years. If anyone is left, we can go back to stone tablets... :)
Darn; sure miss those days. I was a scribe for Hammurabi back when Babylon was the place to be still have all the tools of the trade. . .:thumbsup:
 

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There is no way on earth (and maybe in the sky) that tablets will die out, they are here to stay. Too many people have found 'a tablet' that meets their needs. That is not to say that PC's and laptops are over - they are not. Tablets just add to the entertainment and education genre.
 

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I don't think he meant they would disappear from the face of the earth.

The point he makes is valid. It won't be all that long before something replaces tablets as the next big thing.

Seems almost inevitable.

Wearable Tech is on the way. It might not take off with first iterations - or something else might replace that even before it has really begun to fly.
 

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Hi there
I actually DO think tablets will be dead in around 5 years if not sooner -- at least those 7 inch ones might be.
If portability is the name of the game -- and think what you actually USE a tablet for -- is a convenient 4 inch screen smartphone actually worse than a 7 inch tablet -- any larger screens than this and the phone starts losing any pretensions to being a PORTABLE MOBILE phone.

Once you have decided that you really can do most things with a mobile phone then why would you bother to carry a 7 inch tablet as well -- it doesn't work decently as an e-reader (only the e-ink type of screens IMO are any good for long periods of reading OUTDOORS especially in bright light) and you certainly won't be doing "Officy" type things on a 7 inch tablet.

Wait and see - but I think the 7 inch tablet is just a TOY which will pass its sell by date quite quickly now the novelty has worn off.

For genuine COMPUTER type stuff with decent portability -- 11.2 inches is about the smallest practical screen size for extended use - especially as you get slightly older and can't always work with TINY text on these really miniscule screens.

I'm rather amused by this whole debate as people both at home and at work are opting for larger (and multiple) monitors while the debate rages on over how small a tablet can get and still be useful.

Unless I can work at home or in an office with a MINIMUM of a 24 inch screen these days I don't want to know !!! -- on a train etc the 11.2 inch form factor is just fine. A 10 inch one is just about tolerable for shortish periods but I certainly wouldn't use a 10 inch device as a "Portable Work Horse" for office / work type stuff.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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Perhaps a huge asteroid will hit the earth in 5 years. If anyone is left, we can go back to stone tablets... :)
Darn; sure miss those days. I was a scribe for Hammurabi back when Babylon was the place to be still have all the tools of the trade. . .:thumbsup:


:roflmao:
 

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