Research in Motion (RIM), Canadian based company has decided not to upgrade software for its much maligned PlayBook tablet computer until February, 2012, months behind the schedule, and the new version still would not feature the popular BlackBerry Messenger application.
PlayBook OS 2.0 is seen as a chance to improve the PlayBook’s appeal in the eyes of businesses devoted to the Canadian company’s smartphones but increasingly tempted by hot Apple or Android mobile gadgets. RIM stock price sank more than five percent on both the NASDAQ and Toronto exchanges as investors digested the latest in string of disappointments as RIM struggles to compete with Apple’s category defining iPad tablet.
At a conference last week in San Francisco, RIM provided developers with PlayBook tablets powered by test versions of the new operating software so they could provide feedback. RIM released a kit for software developers to make programs for PlayBook devices as the company tries to tap into the importance of fun, hip or functional “apps” to the popularity of mobile gadgets.
RIM that makes the BlackBerry mobile phones introduced the Playbook last April. But consumers and technology writers alike scorned the tablet because it could not handle the in-built email, calendar and contact applications that made BlackBerry a house-hold name.
