RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Released ‘Too Late’

RIM has finally released its BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software update, adding key features including an integrated email client and unified hub for social networking messages. However commentators say the update may be too little, too late.

The update also adds ‘thousands of new apps’ to the BlackBerry App World, including a select number of PlayBook-compatible Android apps. But, although this version is  “what the first Playbook software should have been”, it may not be any help to RIM, warned analyst Craig Cartier at Frost & Sullivan.

Email integration

“Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support,” said RIM’s senior vice president of Mobile Computing, David J Smith, in a press statement.

RIM was heavily criticised for failing to include an email app when it first introduced the PlayBook, especially considering the brand’s reputation as a messaging leader. It is hoping to rectify what many considered to be a highly damaging error with its new combined inbox for email and social networking messages. The ‘social hub’ will – in addition to consolidating real-time information from LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – pull information to be added to an integrated calendar.

The OS 2.0 update will also introduce the BlackBerry Bridge feature which allows a BlackBerry smartphone to work as a remote control, wireless keyboard and mouse for the tablet. It works over a Bluetooth connection and is touted by RIM as a way to improve media consumption and editing.

Other smaller additions include the new Print To Go app, BlackBerry Balance (for control and management of corporate data) and an initial release for BlackBerry Fusion, a tool to handle tablets and smartphones in an enterprise setting. Fusion is expected to get a full release, with functionality for iOS and Android devices, in late March.

Despite the promising additions to the PlayBook’s operating system, RIM may be forced to concede defeat in the tablet market. The company dealt itself a blow last October when the OS 2.0 roll out was delayed, and the market has since toughened with the Kindle Fire presenting itself as a viable cheap tablet. Apple may pile on further pressure with the supposedly imminent iPad 3 announcement.

Will it help RIM?

“Playbook 2.0 is really – for lack of a more sophisticated word – cool,” Craig Cartier, an Analyst for ICT practice at Frost & Sullivan . “It’s what the first Playbook software should have been from a company which stakes its brand on messaging strength, with tightly integrated calendar, email, and contacts.”

Cartier is positive about hti saspect of Playbook 2.0:  “Have a meeting tomorrow with Fred?  Tap and you’ll see the last meeting you had with Fred, and your messaging history, including email, Linkedin, Facebook, and other sources all in one. Tap again and you can view a specific former email, or perhaps visit Fred’s LinkedIn page.  As Blackberry puts it, it is software that lets you always move forward.  This and other features give great potential for a device that from a hardware perspective is already top-notch.”

He also likes the new apps. “The updated software will support Android applications that are repackaged for sale in BlackBerry AppWorld,” he said. “This still requires developer effort, but certainly not to the degree that entirely rewriting an Android application for Blackberry would.  This should fill out App World quickly, and with this capability in Playbook 2.0, Blackberry may not vault themselves to leaders in the app market, but they will have likely made up for a serious deficiency.”

Will it be enough though? The Playbook updates  “should have a positive effect on both Playbook sales and RIM’s brand perception,” he said, but they are “the only major update coming from RIM until the much anticipated (and much delayed) Blackberry 10, due in the latter part of 2012.”

This delay could be too much, warned Cartier.  “Half a year (thinking optimistically) in the smartphone space is an eternity, however.  Nokia can attest to the detriment of idle time during a market share slide, as their own struggles with the Symbian platform and new Microsoft partnership have left this other traditional market leader far behind in the smartphone era.  Too little too late for RIM?  Time (and customer response) will tell.”

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