ADOBE FLASH KILLING BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK BATTERY

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu recently wrote RIM's new Blackberry Playbook might only have the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy tablet at best, and that is with some major re-engineering. What is killing the battery life of the Playbook? According to Wu it's Adobe Flash. "From our understanding, the poor battery life of early PlayBook units may be due to its incorporation of Adobe Flash," Wu wrote. "As seen in recent tests for the new MacBook Air, use of Flash can cut battery life in half. It should be no surprise to anyone that our checks indicate Adobe is furiously working on reducing Flash's consumption of resources to make it a viable mobile platform vs. HTML5 that both Apple and Google are moving toward." What's clear, Wu wrote, is that the PlayBook is unlikely to reach the iPad's 10-hour battery life. "We would be very surprised if PlayBook matches anywhere near the battery life of the iPad at 10 hours unless it uses a larger battery," he said.

The PlayBook is based on QNX, which "wasn't originally designed for low-powered mobile environments but rather devices plugged into a wall socket (like network equipment) or a car battery (like automobile control systems and stereos)," Wu wrote. "At the end of the day, we are glad RIM is working hard on improving battery life as it will be good for both customers and shareholders."

RIM has responded to battery life concerns and issued a statement saying it's "on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook's battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life."