PlayBook will get BlackBerry OS 10; confirmed

RIM’s one and only tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook has been subjected to quite a bit of downplay, at least as far as the big players in the mobile world go. Even with the recent 2.0 update, things still don’t seem to be looking too good for the Canadian company in the tablet division. 2.0 brought a few necessary’ updates to the operating system on the PlayBook that included features like an integrated e-mail client with unified inbox for Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter that works independent of your mobile handset, social networking integration for your contacts, etc.

While the new features are certainly relevant and bring much needed updates to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The device, however, still lacks a little to make it any real competition for the likes of the iPad or any Android tablet available, in any price bracket. The latest news from the Enterprise giant is that the PlayBook will officially be getting an update to BlackBerry 10 OS. Of course, the operating system itself is not slated to launch till the end of the year, sometime, but PlayBook owners who wish to hold onto their device for whatever reason will have a long wait to hopefully see some real changes to the OS.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

TechRadar recently received a confirmation from RIM regarding the future OS update to the PlayBook. Rob Orr, RIM’s VP of product management, told the site that once 10 OS was officially launched it would meander its way to the tablet as well. What this could also mean is that the PlayBook line itself might be discontinued as there’s been no serious buzz about a possible upgrade to the existing model. Could it mean that the BlackBerry PlayBook will remain just this singular product?

The mobile community is of course anxiously waiting to see what BlackBerry 10 OS will bring to the mobile screen running on the QNX platform that currently exists on the PlayBook. It might be interesting to see a PlayBook styled UI on a smartphone. In RIM’s case it’ll be great to see a new look to the existing UI overall.

With their current ‘fall from grace’ RIM will need a serious upheaval to get back into the game. New device launches might make a slight difference for their existing clientele, however the long wait for BlackBerry 10 OS had better be worth the wait, for RIM could lose a lot more than shares. In the meantime, we can only hope that future updates to their existing line of mobile and tablet devices will be enough to keep users going till the next big step.