Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s a Friday morning PSA for you BlackBerry PlayBook owners: if you were feverishly clutching your tablet in hopes that BlackBerry would finally update it with a shiny new OS, you can finally put them down. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins just confirmed during the company’s Q1 earnings call that the BlackBerry 10 won’t be coming to your aging doodad.

Tough break, folks.

Specifically, Heins said that he was “not satisfied with level of performance and user experience” of BlackBerry 10 on the PlayBook, though he quickly added that the company would continue to “support PlayBook on existing software platform and configurations.” Understandably, it just didn’t make sense for the company to continue devoting time and effort to the project (especially considering the tablet is about two years old). Going forward, Heins also noted that BlackBerry only aims to have about six products in the market at any given time, and hopefully that “more wood behind fewer arrows” approach works out. And hey, one of them may be a BB10-powered phablet, which kinda sorta jibes with Heins’ belief that tablets won’t be around for too much longer.

It’s a fair enough reason–BlackBerry has limited resources with which it’s attempting to perform the mother of all mobile turnarounds–but the company hasn’t exactly been keeping people’s expectations in check. Last month an errant tweet from a BlackBerry Mexico employee indicated that the update would be hitting devices within the next few weeks, a scenario that will (sadly) never play out. Still, for a tablet that launch in April 2011, BlackBerry is still doing a decent job at moving them — the company pointed out in today’s earnings release that it shipped 100,000 PlayBooks over the past quarter.

An accidental tweet from Blackberry Mexico might have let the cat out of the bag that Blackberry 10 for the Playbook could be released in the next few weeks.

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A significant amount of interest has been generated today by a comment made by BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins on how the tablet industry isn’t long for this world. In a follow-up notice from BlackBerry, it’s been made clear that Heins’ words were not meant to initiate a kill notice on any future BlackBerry hardware, that including a possible BlackBerry 10 tablet device.

Of course with the language used by the company, it’s just as likely they’ve got no large-screened BlackBerry devices in the works as it is that they do. With the original BlackBerry PlayBook having stayed in the technology news ranks for far, far longer than it’s been a commercial success. As Heins suggested in the article released earlier today:

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.” – Heins

In an update sent across the wire by BlackBerry this afternoon, it’s being clarified what the company wants Heins to have meant. As he said previously, they make clear, never say never!

“The comments that Thorsten made yesterday are in line with previous comments he has made about the future of mobile computing overall, and the possibilities that come with a platform like BlackBerry 10. We continue to evaluate our tablet strategy, but we are not making any shifts in that strategy in the short term. When we do have information about our PlayBook strategy, we will share it.” – BlackBerry

So do we expect BlackBerry 10 to be coming to the market in a large-screened tablet in the immediate future? It wouldn’t be a very good bet, that’s for sure. Will there be BlackBerry 10 devices appearing outside the BlackBerry Z10 and keyboard-toting Q10 out on the market today? That you can expect with a bit more confidence.

BlackBerry PlayBook 2 potential gets official reboot is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Holding out for a post-RIM version of the PlayBook? That waiting likely won’t end any time soon. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins used an interview yesterday to discuss the mobile environment five years out. Seems he’s feeling particularly bullish about his own company’s prospects. “In five years, I see BlackBerry to be the absolute leader in mobile computing — that’s what we’re aiming for,” he told the interviewer. “I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat.”

Not being a copycat may likely involve staying away from the crowded tablet market. “In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” according to the CEO. “Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.” This certainly isn’t the first time the exec has expressed caution about the space in the wake of the PlayBook’s lukewarm reception. Heins has mentioned in the past that the company won’t jump back into tablets unless it sees the potential for profits.

Update: BlackBerry has since issued an official response to the interview,

The comments that Thorsten made yesterday are in line with previous comments he has made about the future of mobile computing overall, and the possibilities that come with a platform like BlackBerry 10. We continue to evaluate our tablet strategy, but we are not making any shifts in that strategy in the short term. When we do have information about our PlayBook strategy, we will share it.

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Source: Bloomberg

BlackBerry is launching the Z10 today in the U.S., but it’s already looking ahead to what comes next, according to an interview between ABC’s Joanna Stern and BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins. The company is working on ways that BlackBerry software can power your laptop or tablet, too, and all from your smartphone. Heins sounds like he’s describing an Asus PadFone, and revealed a dream of a personal computing world focused on just a single device.

Heins said, referring to the new BlackBerry smartphones, that we’ve now reached the point where you’re now carrying around a full-fledged computer in your pocket with “the power of a laptop.” He emphasized that BlackBerry wants to be the one to finally figure out how to truly consolidate all of a user’s computing devices into one, though when asked directly whether this would take the form of a laptop or tablet that supports and is powered by a docked smartphone, Heins told Stern that the company is working with a number of different options.

We’ll know more about BlackBerry’s unification plans at BlackBerry World in May, Heins said, when he plans to “talk about a few of those concepts” the company is working on. Another subject up for discussion at the event will be additional BB10 phones beyond the currently announced Z10 and Q10 handsets, he told ABC.

Hybrid tablet/PC/smartphone devices have a bit of a checkered past. The Asus PadFone has seen success in some international markets, but failed to make a splash in the U.S. And Samsung launched a Smart Dock for the Galaxy Note II that supposedly converts your smartphone into a mini desktop computer, but we’ve heard relatively little about that device and nothing about its popularity since its launch.

Another reason for skepticism is BlackBerry’s track record with the Playbook tablet. The Playbook was the first BlackBerry device to ship with a QNIX-based operating system, a clear precursor to BB10. It didn’t fare well: facing extremely low consumer demand, BlackBerry ran a number of fire sales and eventually stuck with a permanent, drastic price drop to get people buying.

Does that mean BlackBerry can’t pull off a tablet/notebook/smartphone unification? Not necessarily, but it also doesn’t necessarily instill courage. Still, it’s good to see the company aim for the kind of solution that’s seemed so promising in the past, even if it might be the proverbial Fountain of Youth of the tech industry – eminently desirable but ultimately mythical.