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New BlackBerry tablet has solid design but is missing essential featuresApr 29, 2011 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- It's the age of the tablet, and no computer or smartphone maker wants to be left out. Forrester Research predicts that 21.4 million tablets will be sold in the U.S. in 2011, and the number will rise to 44 million in 2015. While Apple owns the majority of that market now with the iPad and iPad 2, a cluster of competitors are arriving on the scene. The latest is the BlackBerry PlayBook, a touch-screen computer from Research in Motion, the company that dominated the smartphone race before anyone knew what a smartphone was. But the PlayBook is missing some key features, making the device all but irrelevant, according to many critics. After having some time to play with the new device, Dallas Morning News tech writers Victor Godinez and Jim Rossman share their thoughts on the tablet and whether it's worth buying. Victor: Jim, having spent several days with the 7-inch PlayBook, I think the hardware is excellent. I know some people prefer the larger screen of the iPad, but that's just personal taste. No right or wrong answer on that one. And the operating system itself feels slick. It behaves a lot like Palm's webOS software. But the only way to get your email on the PlayBook is by tethering it to a BlackBerry phone. That, to me, is so annoying, it completely invalidates any reason for the PlayBook to exist. What's more, AT&T doesn't currently support that "bridge" function for BlackBerry phones on its network. So even though I have a BlackBerry phone on hand, I wasn't able to test the email capability on the PlayBook. That's just a deal-killer, no? Jim: Count me in as loving the PlayBook form factor and operating system. I can see this little guy being a software update or two away from being a contender. I'm not in the camp that hates on the PlayBook just because it shipped without mail/calendar/contacts. I can see RIM's vision of connecting the PlayBook to a BlackBerry phone. There's no configuration after the initial setup, and should the tablet get lost or stolen, there's no personal information to fall into unfriendly hands. This makes the PlayBook an appealing choice for enterprise customers (and their administrators) that are already down the road with BlackBerry phones. In fact, that's really RIM's target market -- their installed user base of phone customers. However, I agree that if you're not a BlackBerry phone user, you're not going to seriously consider buying a PlayBook. That said, I did find plenty to like about it. Multitasking is very simple to use, and the interface is easy to pick up and learn. Flash videos from sites such as Hulu Plus also work well. The front-facing speakers provide decent sound for a tablet, and transferring media to the PlayBook was very easy. Also, the fact that I didn't need a computer to set up and start using the PlayBook is something RIM does better than Apple. Victor: You're a lot more forgiving than I am. I think the PlayBook is borderline useless without built-in email. When Palm announced the Foleo back in 2007, that mini-laptop also required being tethered to a phone, and the device was so roundly ridiculed, it was canceled before it was even released. That RIM repeated that mistake with the PlayBook suggests that it was rushed to market before it was ready. But that isn't stopping RIM from charging full price for the PlayBook (starting at $499 for 16GB of storage). I'm also not a big fan of the small, hard-to-press power button on the top of the PlayBook. Strange that the designers at RIM didn't catch that. Overall, I think the PlayBook is going to struggle to make any impact at all. The missing email feature, I think, will turn off a lot of hard-core users. And the paltry number of apps will dissuade casual fans. RIM has only a month or two to shove out a ton of cool software updates before the PlayBook is forgotten. Jim: I think you're right about the time frame. RIM needs to supplement the PlayBook with good email/calendar/contact apps in the next month or two, or it's never going to make even a small dent in iPad sales. There is really no excuse. Apps are not that hard to produce, and my bet is those apps already exist. I'm also in agreement that any potential competitor to the iPad is going to need to be priced aggressively. If RIM were to make this a $300 device, I'd give it some serious consideration. I'm a big fan of the $250 Nook Color, which got a nice software upgrade this week to make it more of a tablet instead of a reader. I see the PlayBook competing against the Nook Color and Samsung Galaxy Tab, not the iPad. 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