HP Calls Blackberry an “Imitator” Over Playbook’s OS
Well, we've been wondering when this exchange would occur.
HP's Jon Oakes (director of product marketing for the TouchPad) says, "From what we've seen in the market, there are some uncanny similarities. It's a fast innovation cycle and a fast imitation cycle in this market, so we just know that we have the creative engine here to continue to build on what we have, and we'll keep innovating, we'll keep honing and those guys hopefully will continue to see the value in it and keep following us by about a year."
What he is referring to is the uncanny resemblance of Blackberry's upcoming Playbook UI with our beloved webOS, which has been around since 2009.
RIM's response? "…we set out from the ground up to define a user experience that we felt would delight our customers, and we landed in a place that may look like other competitive devices"
In other words, "Big deal – webOS is the best user interface and we agree." (my interpretation!)
The problem for HP is this – Blackberry's Playbook is set to arrive in stores starting next month (April 10), while HP's TouchPad is still vacationing in a summer release date. Consumer opinion is all that really matters. HP risks being seen be the marketplace as the imitator, not the innovator. Ouch!
Let's hope that HP has a great marketing plan that communicates the strengths of webOS over the competition – and not just talk about their "Beats" audio system and "Touch to Share."
[Source: LapTopMag.com]