RIM confirms BlackBerry PlayBook to get BlackBerry 10 OS
updated 06:30 am EDT, Thu March 15, 2012
RIM says PlayBook will get BB 10 after smartphone
RIM has confirmed with TechRadar that the BlackBerry PlayBookwill get the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS when it is ready. The BlackBerry 10 OS is based on the same QNX platform as the PlayBook OS and is currently in the process of being redesigned for an optimal smartphone experience. The move to update the PlayBook tablet to a variation of the same OS as its mobile phones will follow a strategy that has been adopted by both Apple’s iOS as well as Google’s Android.
However, unlike Apple, which is now updating its smartphone and tablet operating systems simultaneously, RIM will issue a PlayBook update, but only after BlackBerry 10 is up and running on its next-generation of smartphones. ‘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,’ said Rob Orr, RIM's VP of product management. ‘At some point after the launch we'll bring BB10 to our PlayBooks, yes.’
Orr also had a few remarks to make about the update pattern of users of the PlayBook to version 2.0 following a year-long wait for email, and other essential native applications including a calendar app. ‘The updates from PlayBook 1.0 to PlayBook 2.0 [saw] astonishing take up rates in a very short space of time,’ said Orr. According to Orr, 50 percent of PlayBook users downloaded the PlayBook 2.0 OS on its first day of release.
The first BlackBerry 10 handset is codenamed London. RIM is said to be testing the device with both a 1.5GHz TI OMAP processor as well as a similar chip from Qualcomm. The London and the BlackBerry 10 OS will form the cornerstone of RIM’s planned comeback following successive quarters bleeding smartphone market share to the iPhone and Android devices, even its once untouchable corporate stronghold. However, the new OS and handset are not expected until the summer at the earliest, or fall. [via Engadget]
