BlackBerry PlayBook won't get the BB10 update after all

[flumperino]

It's official, BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet will not get upgraded to run its new BlackBerry 10 OS.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins retracted on the promise of delivering the Blackberry 10 update, and said that the company was not satisfied with the performance of the new software on the PlayBook tablet and would focus on its core products instead.

"Unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience," said Heins. "I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio."

He said that multiple teams were working on porting the BlackBerry 10 OS to the PlayBook but he decided to cancel the project. He did mention that the company would continue to support the PlayBook with its existing software.

At the time of the international launch of BlackBerry 10 and the first smartphone that runs it, the BlackBerry Z10, Heins had promised that the company planned to upgrade all PlayBook tablets to BlackBerry 10.

The BlackBerry tablet currently runs the PlayBook 2.1 OS which is built on QNX. The same platform has been used as a base for the new BlackBerry 10 operating system as well. However, the PlayBook can not run native BlackBerry 10 apps.

Heins has been vocal in conveying that the company was not too keen on tablets, indicating on more than one occasion that BlackBerry was not looking at building a new tablet.

During an interview Heins said that he does't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet in five years and that tablets were not a good business model.

Heins had also admitted that with the PlayBook, which did not turn out to be a success, the company took the plunge a little too early as it was excited to show off its new operating system and missed out on building an app ecosystem.

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/tablets/news...ter-all-385581

[flumperino]

In short: absolute cunts!!!!

I've never liked Blackberry devices, but have remained loyal to the Playbook as it's the best tab I have ever owned.....but it really needs a software update to complement the magnificent hardware build.

But these bastards have kept us strung along for six fucking months, only to change their minds after all this waiting. Goodness knows how many thousands of people have bought a Playbook this year on the basis that it would get BB10.

Any respect I had for Blackberry is now gone. I was considering buying a Z10, but there's no chance of that now if this is how they treat their customers.

They can go fuck themselves.

[GTI]

To be fair, most people who own Playbooks bought them at fire-sale prices (e.g. as low as 99 quid for 64GB). That in itself is enough of gift from the company, why should they waste any more resource on a lost cause?

[littlebilly1]

To be fair, most people who own Playbooks bought them at fire-sale prices (e.g. as low as 99 quid for 64GB). That in itself is enough of gift from the company, why should they waste any more resource on a lost cause?

Because of the sheer volume of customers that bought them, be that at a reduced price or not


Sent From TapaTalk

[flumperino]

To be fair, most people who own Playbooks bought them at fire-sale prices (e.g. as low as 99 quid for 64GB). That in itself is enough of gift from the company, why should they waste any more resource on a lost cause?

Fair question. The reason is that they specifically promised that the Playbook would get BB10. The issue here is less to do with the actual tablet, and more to do with lying to their customers.....and potentially, getting themselves in legal hot water as many people will have bought the devices based on a promise that Blackberry made that they have now renegged on.

This announcement is going to make a serious dent in Blackberry's flagging future, as they have just pissed off a load of their hardcore fans.

[GTI]

Fair question. The reason is that they specifically promised that the Playbook would get BB10. The issue here is less to do with the actual tablet, and more to do with lying to their customers.....and potentially, getting themselves in legal hot water as many people will have bought the devices based on a promise that Blackberry made that they have now renegged on.

This announcement is going to make a serious dent in Blackberry's flagging future, as they have just pissed off a load of their hardcore fans.

According to the CEO they tried to make it work, but clearly the hardware is not up to BB10. That's not lying, just being realistic. And again I wouldn't call bargain hunters hardcore fans, its the same savvy buyers who probably bought the HP tab knowing that it was a lorra computer for the money.

[flumperino]

OK, but I disagree.

It's all smoke and mirrors, and I've been following Blackberry for a while now and they constantly break promises and don't communicate to their customers.

[beansontoast]

I bought one at £129. I kept reading about BB10 coming to the playbook but wasn't really expecting it to. The least they can do is have the playbook run the same apps or be able to have the same apps as the new phones be developed in parallel with little additional effort from developers. That's the only way I think the playbook will be able to continue after this announcement. It's still a really good tablet for the money, says someone who hasn't turned it on in two months. At least now I know I wouldn't have used a more expensive tablet much at all.

[supraman54]

The alpha that's been shown working on the pbook was smooth as silk so I think their statement the hardware won't take it is pure BS.
The only consolation is that 3rd party apps overcame the BBs own shortcomings with a useless video player so it can be used to watch
movies and with 64 Gig of room it can hold plenty.

This is typical of a company that is out of touch with it's consumers

[BigBird]

According to the CEO they tried to make it work, but clearly the hardware is not up to BB10. That's not lying, just being realistic. And again I wouldn't call bargain hunters hardcore fans, its the same savvy buyers who probably bought the HP tab knowing that it was a lorra computer for the money.

I'm guessing that Blackberry knew about this problem a while back which is why they dropped the price to sell as many playbooks as they can before announcing the problem. If that is the case then they have a serious legal and moral case to answer. Regardless of how much anyone paid for their playbook, if they bought it based on Blackberry's promise that BB10 would be available for it then it has been sold under false pretenses. (">

[JonEp]

Really happy I sold mine now the other day for 99 quid on the bay.

If you have one day ring up BB support and tell them your wall charger is faulty. They will send you a magnetic rapid charger as default in return.

Only problem is they only ship form Canada so it takes a full 10 days. But the rapid chargers are a world apart and worth more if you do decide to sell either together or separate.

Sent from my B1-A71 using Tapatalk 2

[macmilm]

Blackberry were basically the first sort of smart phones... but didnt handle their success properly IMHO and got overtaken by many other providers and have been left looking like startled rabbits in headlights...
It is a shame though cos they did innovate at 1 point they were the best but didnt know how to carry on and it just went pair shaped

[chesser]

I bought a Playbook for my wife as it was cheap and she loves it.

Not actually had to put much on it but what I think would be useful are the must have apps for the Playbook?

[emu]

they should unlock the bootloader now and let us have custom roms