The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg reviewed Research In Motion’s new Playbook tablet device today. Interesting device, new operating system, nice screen, and this shocker:

On a Blackberry tablet, there is no email app.

There is no calendar.

There is no notes app.

According to Mossberg, to use these apps, you must connect your Playbook to your Blackberry, via Bluetooth, and the apps will appear.

No Blackberry? You’ll need to use Web-based versions of these applications.

The article says that RIM will release these apps in upcoming software updates.

I see three major problems with all this:

1. The product is not ready for the market. RIM is rushing to release it, to sell units. The problem is, the experience will create frustrated customers. People don’t need another reason to leave RIM at this point, and with a half-baked Playbook, the company is giving them a pretty big excuse to go elsewhere. Even the most loyal customers will put up with only so much frustration.
2. This strikes me as a case of a good technology maker making a product unnecessarily complicated. Why make people link to their Blackberry to use email on the tablet? Technology manufacturers love to show off their latest engineering even if it doesn’t help customers. In this case, it’s unintuitive and unnecessarily complex. You know what would help customers? An email app. And a calendar app. How does a Blackberry coming to market not have this built in on launch day? What’s more important to Blackberry customers?!
3. So many companies are rushing to get into the tablet market now that Apple has perfected the device, and proved a widespread consumer interest. It happened with MP3 players after the iPod. It happened with large, touch-screen super-smart phones after the iPhone. It’s happening now with e-book readers, after the Kindle. It’s the automatic response — rush into a new market. But it’s not always the most intelligent business response for a company. For example, RIM needs to be working hard right to create specialness around its Blackberry devices, which consumers are fleeing in the US. Its app store can be improved. Its consumer strategy needs attention. A tablet — without core apps at launch — and the problems that come with it, will divert the company’s attention from more mission-critical issues.

Even though the tablet category is a promising new market, it has already been conquered by two major players and platforms — Apple, and all those Android tablets. The lesson: many times, it’s better to focus on your core business, and your core customers, then jumping into a new, peripheral, complimentary business.