I love my Xoom, I would be a fool not to recommend it... however, if you are going to need it for business and actual real day usage, you may have to wait before this becomes a little more stable. I love my Xoom because I have always loved messing around with my Android devices. I have seen the PlayBook do a great deal of NICE stuff, but the majority of the time I hate gestures (trust me, I love how WebOS looks and feels but the whole gesture thing just really sucks) which really distracts me from the overall much more smoother, cleaner, and stable OS that the PlayBook so obviously holds over the Xoom. However, the PlayBook is not without its faults ( besides my opinion on gesture based OSes). The fact that BlackBerru dev support is increasingly lacking another reason to stay away from this device. Yes there are Android apps, but the odds that devs will try and make these apps more compatible with the PlayBook is just so unlikely. Another reason I dislike the PlayBook is... LOOK AT THE SCREEN. They claim it is 7 inches but that is very small, the Xoom has a much bigger screen which makes for a nicer typing experience( I get this from the fact that I have tried and used a Tab for a day, you will just look like you are holding a big phone, sorta like the Streak only goofier). One thing you also have to consider is which brand has been more reliable? To my understanding RIM has killed off a lot of BlackBerry devices when they announced BB OS 6. This proves troubling, I doubt that the PlayBook will be outdated easily, but to think that RIM would kill off software support before the carriers could even stop selling it is pretty sad. Yes Android is more or less like that, but if you are a tech junkie you most likely will be able to install future ROMs if you dislike the one you currently have etc. One final thing that you NEED to look at is simply the openness of the platforms. Does RIM allow you to install custom operating systems and such? Do they allow you full access to the hardware? I don't think so, correct me if I am wrong.
Really though if you are a tech junkie, Motorola Xoom. The BlackBerry PlayBook is a more iPadish thing, it has a polished and stable UI, it has accessories and support from the manufacturer at launch ( cases, docks, cables) and it also feels more complete.It's something that if you actually want to go read a CNN article or watch a YouTube video, that could do it for you without a hitch. However with the Xoom, you are a beta tester... everything feels so experimental, the browser crashes without warning, flash freezes the device altogether, hell there have even been reports that Google Books and YouTube isn't coming preinstalled in a lot of people's Xooms. So again... wanna have some tech I fun? Xoom, all the way. Want to get something done without a single thought of imminent failure? PlayBook for ya.
Sent from my Xoom