Research in Motion will make its upcoming BB10 operating system available for its PlayBook tablet, Tech Radar reported Thursday. RIM, which released PlayBook 2.0 for the 7-inch device last month, is expected to launch the QNX-based BB10 OS alongside a new slate of BlackBerry smartphones sometime this fall.
"We've said publicly a number of times that our first BB10 handset will be available towards the end of 2012, and that's still firmly the case," Tech Radar quoted RIM vice president of product management Rob Orr as saying. "At some point after the launch we'll bring BB10 to our PlayBooks, yes."
"We've said publicly a number of times that our first BB10 handset will be available towards the end of 2012, and that's still firmly the case," Tech Radar quoted RIM vice president of product management Rob Orr as saying. "At some point after the launch we'll bring BB10 to our PlayBooks, yes."
PlayBook 2.0, which added native email and other features to RIM's tablet that were missing when the device was first released last year, is also a QNX-based operating system. RIM picked up the microkernel-based OS in its 2010 acquisition of QNX Software Systems and the Canadian smartphone maker has reportedly had a tougher go of integrating QNX with its in-house BlackBerry software platform for an array of mobile devices it plans to release.RIM has certainly had its share of troubles in recent times—long-time co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down in January following a string of disappointing quarterly performances and underwhelming product launches. The initial PlayBook launch last April was largely panned because the tablet lacked support for the mobile software and services structure that for years had made RIM's BlackBerry handsets so popular in the market, particular in enterprise environments.
But the on-schedule release of PlayBook 2.0 is at least a strong indicator that RIM has finally succeeded in wrestling its two OS properties towards friendlier terms with each other, a pretty important feat because BB10 will further blend QNX and the BlackBerry OS to create a single, integrated mobile operating system that RIM will use for all of its devices going forward.
Orr told Tech Radar that about half of PlayBook users installed the PlayBook 2.0 update on the day of its release, calling that a "really positive" development for RIM Perhaps, but unfortunately there aren't all that many people using PlayBooks in the first place. And these days, even encouraging news from the struggling company is bound to inspire the skeptic's standard lament of "too little, too late."
But the on-schedule release of PlayBook 2.0 is at least a strong indicator that RIM has finally succeeded in wrestling its two OS properties towards friendlier terms with each other, a pretty important feat because BB10 will further blend QNX and the BlackBerry OS to create a single, integrated mobile operating system that RIM will use for all of its devices going forward.
Orr told Tech Radar that about half of PlayBook users installed the PlayBook 2.0 update on the day of its release, calling that a "really positive" development for RIM Perhaps, but unfortunately there aren't all that many people using PlayBooks in the first place. And these days, even encouraging news from the struggling company is bound to inspire the skeptic's standard lament of "too little, too late."
Source Pcmag
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