New BlackBerry Tablet Unlikely; PlayBook to Get BB10
BlackBerry 10 update to launch on PlayBook.
BlackBerry, previously known as Research In Motion, has said that a new tablet powered by BlackBerry 10 is unlikely to come to fruition.
Speaking to the press during the BlackBerry 10 launch event, CEO Thorsten Heins conceded that the market is tough. "The tablet business is rather difficult," he stressed. He added the firm is only interested in investing areas it believes could be profitable.
That said, he isn't ruling out future possibilities for a tablet. "We want to provide a value proposition that is not just hardware, but software, too. What we’ll be doing in the tablet space is looking for specific services on top of the tablet — financial, healthcare verticals. We are still exploring various use cases for it."
"Personally, I think it's pretty futile at this point," said Ovum analyst Jan Dawson. "Like Apple, (BlackBerry) really has to make its margin on the device, but it can't charge a premium like Apple."
During April 2011, BlackBerry launched the PlayBook, but it ultimately failed to make an impact in the market. After heavily discounting the product, it shipped a paltry 255,000 units during 2012's third quarter.
While he didn't reveal a time frame, Heins confirmed that BlackBerry is preparing a BlackBerry 10 update for the PlayBook.
BB10 Interview With the QNX Boss of BlackBerry OS
Check out our hands-on with BlackBerry 10 on the Z10.
Interview With the BlackBerry Z10, Q10 Industrial Designer
A Complete Video Walkthrough of BlackBerry 10 OS
That's the problem. I don't think they're in the position to NOT provide a time frame. Instead, they should be coming out with firm deadlines for that: "we will release the BB10 update for Playbook on such-and-such date".
That sounds way more encouraging for the (few) customers they have left.
I am all for the new BB10 system, but if they want a prayer to survive out here they will have to open up the realities that we may or may not want to hear.
Personally, if I'm looking to buy a product now, but it's manufacturer tells me it's going to get a major software upgrade 6 months from now, I'm going to assume the product is defective already. Or I'll simply have flashbacks to my HTC Trophy and the empty promise from MS that every phone would get 1 major OS version upgrade in it's life span....which turned out to be a lie from day 1.... Now I'm hearing rumors that my HTC Trophy might not even get WP7.8...
I bought it march 2012.At this moment playbook has the BEST HTML5 browser in tablets and the most usable (better than ios and android by far.with the 1 finger you can do anything really fast and easy) and stable OS after TONS of updates and optimization.
Now we wait for BB10 to come with loooooots of apps.
NOTE:new ipad sold less units than blackberry playbook last quarter if i remember correctly!!!(it is really cheap but VERY VERY good product now for this price)