∞ RIM's PlayBook strategy is now clear — they don't have one

I have been waiting for RIM to show the world that one big last thing that would drive the masses to by the PlayBook. That one thing that nobody else has, that will drive everyone crazy. Yesterday, they did it. RIM announced an emulator to run Android apps.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]An emulator. That is the big thing for RIM. This is what makes the PlayBook better than an other tablets on the market. An emulator.

So, let me see if I have this right. The PlayBook hardware copies the iPad; the PlayBook operating system copies Apple’s iOS and Palm’s WebOS; and because it has no apps of its own, RIM makes an emulator so its users can load another platform’s apps on its device.

You almost have to wonder when the Commodore 64 emulator will come to the PlayBook. Really, if you’re going to screw your customers, why not go all the way.

RIM’s strategy so far is to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. To be even more specific, throw everything at the wall that the iPad isn’t and see what they can fool people into believing.

In short, RIM doesn’t have a cohesive strategy to build or market the PlayBook or its ecosystem.

The sad thing is, RIM thinks this is working for them.

“The BlackBerry PlayBook is an amazing tablet. The power that we have embedded creates one of the most compelling app experiences available in a mobile computing device today,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion.

Wait a second Mike. You’re saying that you’ve created one of the most compelling app experiences in a mobile device? You don’t have any apps, you have an emulator. That’s compelling?

Do you think its compelling for your customers to use an emulator to run another platform’s apps? Why don’t all of the potential PlayBook users just buy an Android tablet or an iPad and skip the emulators and that “compelling experience” you keep bragging about.

RIM is doing everything it can to convince people that the PlayBook is not an iPad, and they are doing a great job. Unfortunately for RIM, people want an iPad, so all they’ve done is give consumers more reasons to not buy the PlayBook.

Not even Apple could have planned RIM’s PlayBook strategy this good.