BlackBerry Playbook 2.0 delayed, no new Messenger app

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BlackBerry Playbook 2.0 delayed, no new Messenger app

BlackBerry Playbook delay in operating system is likely to anger users already peeved by recent outages at RIM. New BlackBerry Playbook update won't include BlackBerry Messenger app.

Beck Diefenbach/Reuters/File

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research In Motion, speaks about the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, during BlackBerry's DevCon in San Francisco earlier this month. On Thursday, RIM said it was delaying the launch of PlayBook's OS 2.0 until February.

By Sean Ludwig VentureBeat

Oct. 29, 2011, 12:55 p.m. ET

If BlackBerry fans weren鈥檛 already angry at Research in Motion (RIM) for the , they鈥檙e going to be peeved today. RIM has said it is delaying the release of a much-needed software update for the PlayBook tablet until February.

鈥淎s much as we鈥檇 love to have it in your hands today, we鈥檝e made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers, and end-users,鈥� the company said on its .

Research in Motion has struggled to keep up with its mobile device peers, especially Apple and Google鈥檚 Android manufacturing partners. The company has said repeatedly that its PlayBook tablet and a , called BBX, would help lead the company to a new phase of innovation, but a 4-month update delay makes those promises seem far-fetched. RIM shareholders must be wondering how much longer the company will hold out because even much-maligned .

On top of delaying the OS update to the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM said the update still won鈥檛 include an application for BlackBerry Messenger, one of the most popular apps RIM has ever offered. Messenger only works between two BlackBerry users, much like Apple鈥檚 new iMessage program, and it does not charge a user for text message.

鈥淲e are committed to developing a seamless BBM solution that fully delivers on the powerful, push based messaging capabilities recognized today by BlackBerry users around the world and we鈥檙e still working on it,鈥� RIM said. 鈥淚n the meantime, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to continue to use BlackBerry Bridge to securely access BlackBerry Messenger on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet鈥檚 high resolution display.鈥�

Without any top-tier competitor to smartphones, such as the or , or a compelling tablet update to help the PlayBook compete with the iPad or , RIM is looking at a bleak holiday season. Maybe RIM鈥檚 shareholders should ask Santa for new management.

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