RIM pulls a zombie out of the hat
Look, here's the thing: Flash, in its time was brilliant. It enabled programmers and designers to do things that were otherwise hard or even impossible to achieve and Flash is claimed to be installed on something like 98% of all PCs.
The problem is that Flash is installed, then updated, then updated again, then updated again, ad nauseum. And despite all the polishing that goes into each release, the product is still full of security issues. What I can't figure out is why Adobe, the company that can create world-class applications like Lightroom and Photoshop, can't fix Flash!
When Steve Jobs first made it clear that Flash was not going to be available under Apple's iOS, I, along with pretty much everyone else, groaned and assumed that it was just another Apple ploy to gain market control.
Now we know while that is, without doubt, part of the story, Apple's decision is actually really smart because HTML5 with CSS3 and JavaScript will be able to do everything Flash can do but will be an open and international standard. Apple's market power will just accelerate HTML5's development and deployment.
Anyway, here's my bet on the PlayBook: It is the walking dead.
There aren't enough pluses other than slightly better portability to make the PlayBook a serious contender when it's coming late to the market. Add to that that no matter what RIM does, the company won't be able to adequately jumpstart a powerful enough developer market and the PlayBook's future doesn't look good.
Sorry RIM, I'd like to have seen you guys pull a rabbit out of the hat but with the PlayBook it looks like you've pulled a zombie out instead.
