RIM's BB10 coming to PlayBook tablet

Published March 16, 2012 6:01pm

BB10, the latest version of the operating system for BlackBerry devices, is on its way to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Research In Motion (RIM) has confirmed to tech site TechRadar.

TechRadar said that while there is no word on new tablet hardware, the overhauled BB10 will bring new benefits but will still be based on the same QNX platform as the current PlayBook OS.

"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," TechRadar quoted Rob Orr, RIM's VP of product management, as saying.

TechRadar said this comes as RIM scored an impressive percentage uptake up of the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 software.

Orr said the updates from PlayBook 1 to PlayBook 2 showed "astonishing" take-up rates in a very short space of time.

"A big percentage of our users just take it, take, it take it," said Orr.

TechRadar said RIM claimed around half of PlayBook users installed the update on the first day of release and were thrilled to finally get email on their tablets.

In contrast, Orr said smartphone users "are a little bit tentative to take software updates."

"But as we move into this new world of mobile computing, frequent updates and auto updates bring in new features and new functions – and that's the way forward. It's been really positive to see," he said. — TJD, GMA News

Tags: rim, researchinmotion, blackberry, rimblackberry, playbook